This building will be part of the Jardin de l'Arche project, linking La Defense with the new Les Terrasses de Nanterre. As part of this plan, next to the famous Big Arch will be built the stadium "Arena 92" designed by Christian de Portzamparc and a hotel. The customer for the new residential complex is Les Nouveaux Constructeurs in cooperation with Le Epadesa, the state agency for the improvement of the Défense district.
A team of architects led by Farshid Mussavi has created a project for a multifunctional residential complex. Of the 11,430 m2 of the area, 7,500 m2 are reserved for apartments, 2,930 m2 for student dormitories, and another 1,000 m2 will be occupied by cafes and shops.
The "vibrating" floors of the building became the "highlight" of the architectural project: each level is shifted by 2 degrees horizontally relative to the lower floor. As a result, the balconies and loggias are not in the same plane, but are chamfered relative to the central axis of the building - either in one direction or the other, which made it possible to preserve the overall unity of the building volume. Thanks to this, the balconies offer a continuous panorama of the "Axis Major" of Paris, going from the Louvre to La Défense through the Champs Elysees.
The project, scheduled for completion in 2013, will be the first for Farshid Moussavi in France. And the main thing for Farshid Mussavi Architecture - a workshop formed after the collapse of Foreign Office Architects (1995–2010) earlier this year, where Mussavi collaborated with Alejandro Saera-Polo.
Altynai Raskalieva
