La Défense, France
2020
Saint-Gobain Tower
Designed to become the showcase of Saint-Gobain’s image and know-how, the 50,000 m2 tower, 170 m in height and spanning 44 floors, aspires to provide solutions to a large number of current issues:
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
Awards
Geste d’Or 2020
Competition
2013
Delivery
2020
• The decentring of its nucleus and its scalability make it a place that can adapt to the never-ending process of change in working conditions.
• The many services, places for socialising and external gardens offer a quality of life that is new for a high-rise building and its energy efficiency, the choice of materials and the bioclimatic design of the large greenhouses which characterise the tower give it exemplary environmental properties. Open to the exterior, the tower also contributes to the evolution of the La Défense district and the transformation of the ring road into an urban boulevard.
Aside from these concerns which influenced the architectural design, a tower is a highly visible object, and the key to acceptance by those who have to look at, exist alongside or inhabit a building on such a scale is for it to elicit positive emotions. 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.
• The many services, places for socialising and external gardens offer a quality of life that is new for a high-rise building and its energy efficiency, the choice of materials and the bioclimatic design of the large greenhouses which characterise the tower give it exemplary environmental properties. Open to the exterior, the tower also contributes to the evolution of the La Défense district and the transformation of the ring road into an urban boulevard.
Aside from these concerns which influenced the architectural design, a tower is a highly visible object, and the key to acceptance by those who have to look at, exist alongside or inhabit a building on such a scale is for it to elicit positive emotions. 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.
Shenzhen World Expo