La Défense, France
2020
Saint-Gobain Tower
Designed to showcase Saint-Gobain’s expertise and brand image, the 50,000 m2 tower, 170 m in height and spanning 44 floors, aims to address a wide array of contemporary challenges: functional, societal, urban, architectural, and environmental.
Client
Program
Area
Certifications
Awards
Competition
Client
Generali
Program
170-meter tower, 44 floors. Offices – 2200 workstations, restaurants, cafeteria, mediterranean greenhouse, showroom, auditorium.
Area
50 000 m²
Certifications
NF HQE
Exceptionnel
BREEAM
Outstanding
LEED
Platinium
EFFINERGIE+
Référentiel CARE:4
du Groupe Saint-Gobain
Awards
Geste d’Or 2020
Competition
2013
2013
Delivery
2020
Its off-centre core and its modular design create a space that can be adapted to the changing working conditions. Increased services, convivial areas, outdoor gardens mean a new quality of life and energy performances, choice of materials and the bioclimatic design of large glasshouses that are a feature of the tower give it exemplary environmental properties. Open to the outside, the tower also supports the upgrading of this area of La Défense and the conversion of the ring into an urban boulevard.
Aside from these concerns that have guided the architectural design, a tower is a highly visible object and the key to the sense of belonging of those who look at it, rub shoulders with it or live in it is a feeling of positive emotion in front of a building on such a scale. Several architectural strategies have met this objective. The Tour Saint-Gobain was designed as a structure which plays with light. Light is the project’s key material. This tower consists of a collection of “crystals”, and the interplay of faces, angles and the nature of glass enable transparency and reflections to be produced in alternative ways.
Another way of creating emotion was to make the tower a sculpture which uses a novel geometry: rhombohedrons. This instantly created a dynamic effect. With the same height and volume as a standard straight prism, the silhouette soars upwards and the tower is differentiated from others. The faces of the rhombohedrons become apparent via a graphic interplay between the horizontals, the framework of floors on the façade, and the obliques, parallel to the upper and lower faces of the volumes. This equivocal interplay creates a rhythm, a vibration, a kind of music.
The tower’s design greatly extends and supports the presence of the natural environment, an aspect which reflects a deep longing felt by contemporary society. This tower devotes a great deal of space to nature with the large greenhouses that contribute to the building’s image and environmental performance, and the gardens situated on every floor, which are generously planted.
Aside from these concerns that have guided the architectural design, a tower is a highly visible object and the key to the sense of belonging of those who look at it, rub shoulders with it or live in it is a feeling of positive emotion in front of a building on such a scale. Several architectural strategies have met this objective. The Tour Saint-Gobain was designed as a structure which plays with light. Light is the project’s key material. This tower consists of a collection of “crystals”, and the interplay of faces, angles and the nature of glass enable transparency and reflections to be produced in alternative ways.
Another way of creating emotion was to make the tower a sculpture which uses a novel geometry: rhombohedrons. This instantly created a dynamic effect. With the same height and volume as a standard straight prism, the silhouette soars upwards and the tower is differentiated from others. The faces of the rhombohedrons become apparent via a graphic interplay between the horizontals, the framework of floors on the façade, and the obliques, parallel to the upper and lower faces of the volumes. This equivocal interplay creates a rhythm, a vibration, a kind of music.
The tower’s design greatly extends and supports the presence of the natural environment, an aspect which reflects a deep longing felt by contemporary society. This tower devotes a great deal of space to nature with the large greenhouses that contribute to the building’s image and environmental performance, and the gardens situated on every floor, which are generously planted.
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