office building
location: malakoff, paris, france
client: bleecker group
design team: s. barclay – j.p. crousse - p. tarabusi
built surface: 3320 m2
completion: 2003
photographers: j.m. monthiers – j.p. crousse
The project is located at the edge of the Boulevard Périphérique, the beltway that surrounds Paris. The building fits into the urban grid of low-rise houses of the Malakoff neighborhood and exploits its diagonal situation from the beltway. Two opposite images are revealed to the beltway users: an opaque and vertical shape from the West, a transparent and horizontal shape from the East. The simplicity of shapes, the proportions of volumes, and a reduced range of materials allow a clear perception of the building from the high-speed circulation of vehicles. Two parallel and shifted volumes ending in slender and vertical blind walls are conceived as monoliths anchored in the beltway embankment. Finished with dark Venetian stucco and signal lights, the opaque walls refer to publicity signs along the metropolitan beltway.
