Offices along the railways, Clichy-Batignolles district

The building reads like a landscape whose horizontal floor lines deform under the effects of internal tectonics. Morphological accidents disrupt its linearity. These movements define, in a dialogue of solids and voids, the relationship of the building to its territory, its attachment to the ground, and its mass.

Density and compactness create a flexible and modular building, whose façades are clad with a terracotta facing. This enveloppe becomes alive and its expression changes according to the direction, the light and the sky. All the façades are designed with the same care, their continuity is like a skin: homogeneous and without rupture.

This succession of ribbons runs throughout the building, accentuating its horizontal lines, like a sedimentation. On the upper floors, the levels are detached from each other like superimposed ribbons: their inflections and shifts lead to a stratification that naturally accommodates a succession of planted terraces while avoiding any significant views into another office.

There is no air conditioning here. The offices are cooled by water at ambient temperature which circulates in the slabs. The ceiling fans make it possible to gain a few more degrees of comfort. The search for structural and energy frugality has shaped the architecture of the project and characterised the atmosphere of the interior spaces.