The building is a parallelepiped with a base area of 90 mx 50 m and a height of 40 m. But it is not a monolith: in its upper half, a significant part of the volume has been removed, and the resulting atrium voids provide all the rooms with sunlight. In addition, cross-cutting perspectives have been created in the east-west and north-south directions, which visually facilitates the construction.
The City Hall is located in a favorable environment: around - a park with an area of 4 hectares, in front of it - an area of 8000 m2 smoothly descending towards the city, which will be flanked on both sides by low buildings of the Marriott Hotel (Bureau Arago) and a multifunctional complex (Nouvel's project); nearby is the Les, the main river of Montpellier. The building is clearly visible from afar, it rises above the landscape. But its solid purpose, the richness of the program and the limited budget did not allow making "broad poetic gestures," the architect noted.
The lower part of the building is occupied by three large rooms, each with an area of 700 m2: a lobby, a conference room and a council chamber. The ceilings of all three were decorated by artist Alain Fleischer, so overhead lighting was not possible. The architects had to make do with conventional lamps and LEDs mounted on the walls.
The offices are located on the upper floors. Because of the spacious atriums, a significant part of these premises are located on the "bridges" thrown over them. The city hall of Montpellier uses a mixed structure: most of the building is on a metal frame, but concrete "cores" also play a significant role.
The main, northern facade of the building is the only one monolithic. It consists of blue glass, protected from the sun by an aluminum mesh. The rest of the facades are clad in aluminum panels in various shades of blue, and the windows are protected by movable external blinds. On the south side, solar panels are installed on special projections-consoles. They are also located on canopies above the atriums, which are deployed only in summer using special overhead cranes. The walls of the atriums are clad in polished stainless steel sheets.
