L’Oréal Factory

Between suburban housing and industrial buildings, a flower opens on Aulnay. A white corolla with a green heart, it unfurls its three petals in a sweeping undulation. In a subtle alliance of poetry and geometry, the complex torus shape begets at its heart an interior world, a garden of perfume essences.

Each petal has a corresponding production unit. It is a free space and, furthermore, far from being uniform: light penetrates widely and directly, creating shadows and reflections, the undulation of the roof differentiates the packaging zone (overlooking the garden) and the product preparation and manufacturing zone (beneath the higher part). The three units are independent; at mid-height, a footbridge runs through them, overhanging the workshops and embracing the interior garden.

An expression of the values of beauty and elegance that characterise L’Oréal’s activity, the Aulnay-sous-Bois factory is made graceful by its roof: lifting slowly, then swelling deeply, it seems to rest on a spider-like structure.

In Aulnay-sous-Bois, the L’Oréal factory has been built as the manifest point of resolution of functional, formal and construction-related constraints: the architecture employs geometry as the poetic expression of a workplace.