COLDEFY & ASSOCIES ARCHITECTES URBANISTES
Out beyond the impassable compounds and the screens between Paris and its suburbs, on a balcony on the Parisian ring road, just before the Mercuriales, the new offices of the Porte de Bagnolet – with a surface area of 30 000 m2 – turn towards the capital and Greater Paris and show the link between these two territories by a central void connecting them.
The long glazed façade with horizontal lines and diagonals follows the peripheral boulevard and creates a new urban signal for the Porte de Bagnolet as much as it shields against the nuisance of the boulevard for its employees and the inhabitants of Bagnolet. The stairs are clearly visible on the façade, slanting alone the vertical lines of the building. Sometimes outside, this circulation becomes a vantage point from which to view the city, and creates relaxing spaces that connect the different departments. The terraces create a kind of double-skin on the peripheral boulevard side and the central garden green up the very urban space in which they find them-selves adding a welcome breath of fresh air. At the heart of the U that the building forms is a central space open to the city which is a privileged place for encounters or strolls, for a lunch break or just the time to smoke a cigarette and a chat between colleagues. The offices thereby become a space of everyday life, a place open to their neighbourhood and the city that welcomes them, where employees and neighbours meet
COLDEFY & ASSOCIES ARCHITECTES URBANISTES