News: work is nearing completion on an upgraded first floor for the Eiffel Tower that will offer visitors the opportunity to walk over a glass floor or host events and conferences 57 metres above the ground.
The first floor is currently the most spacious but least visited storey of the iconic Parisian structure, but this reconstruction by French studio Moatti-Rivière Architects – the first in 30 years – is set to transform it into an attractive destination filled with restaurants, shops and event spaces.
The architects conceived the 5000-square-metre floor as “a real urban space with its streets, its buildings and its central space, 57 metres above ground”, and are replacing existing pavilions with a series of new self-contained structures boasting modern facilities and impressive views.
An educational pathway will reveal the history of the building, while a glass floor will wrap the outside of the towers’s central opening to offer visitors a vertiginous experience.
The reconstruction will enable disabled access, which before now has been severely restricted. It also introduces sustainable technologies, such as solar power, rainwater harvesting and wind power and low-energy LED lighting.
Here’s a project description from Moatti-Rivière Architects:
The Eiffel Tower’s 1st floor is going to have a face-lift
New buildings and entirely redeveloped public spaces to make the Tower’s 1st floor once again one of Paris’ most spectacular and attractive locations, 57 meters above the city
Since the last transformation of the 1st floor 30 years ago, the Tower has welcomed more visitors than during its first century of existence! The pavilions and public spaces of the 1980s are obsolete and not adapted to the number of visitors, the visitors’ expectations and technical standards.
The floor reorganisation project includes: rebuilding the reception and conference rooms to turn it into one of Paris’ most attractive event spaces; rebuilding the pavilion dedicated to visitor services, particularly restaurants and shops; creating an entertaining and educational museographic path; and finally, creating two spectacular attractions: discovering space on the monument and its esplanade thanks to glass flooring and balustrades and an “immersion” film promising strong emotions.
Important goals linked to the sustainable development policy implemented at the Eiffel Tower: accessibility and reducing its carbon footprint.
Today, disabled people are unable to access most of the 1st floor of the Tower. With this reorganisation all visitors, regardless of their disability, will be able to enjoy the whole space and all its services and contents.
New building standards, solar energy for heating, wind energy, hydraulic energy, rainwater recovery, LED lighting: various techniques will be implemented to help improve the Tower’s energy performance.
An “influenced” architecture, designed entirely in diagonals and transparency by the architects Moatti-Rivière, providing an improved experience of the Tower and Paris and respect for the monument and its history.
The new pavilions are influenced by the pillars designed by Gustave Eiffel. They hug the Tower’s slant. The volumes are incorporated in the depths and curves of the pillars. Service areas are placed next to the gables to preserve the central transparency.
The floor is designed as a real urban space with its streets, its buildings and its central space, 57 meters above ground. It gives a close view of the city and of the Tower itself. It is a knowledge space where the inside of the “Tower object” can be explored.
The project offers an improved experience of the Tower and Paris, an entertaining sensory experience, a journey of the senses and knowledge.
The redevelopment has been designed and carried out by the architects Moatti-Rivière architects, in consortium with Bateg for the construction. The latter won the design-construction contract in October 2010.
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News: French studio LAN has won a competition to revamp the Grand Palais exhibition centre in Paris with plans to restore galleries around the Grand Nave and insert a new entrance court.
LAN proposes to restructure and restore the “original coherence and sense of transparency” of the grand Beaux Arts building, which was constructed for the World’s Fair of 1900 at the eastern end of the Champs-Elysées, and which features a barrel-vaulted glass and iron roof.
The first intervention will be to adapt entrances on the northern and southern facades. A pair of gentle ramps will follow the curvature of the existing fountain to lead visitors to the main access on Avenue du Général-Eisenhower, while the riverside entrance will serve as a dedicated arrival point for special exhibitions and the restaurant.
Both entrances will lead through to a new two-storey ambulatory between the Grand Nave and the rotunda of the adjoining Palais d’Antin. Voids in the floorplates will create double-height ceilings and stairwells, allowing the space to function as the connecting area between all exhibitions.
Existing galleries will be re-planned to allow greater flexibility, while a new exhibition space for contemporary art and live performance will be created within the Palais d’Antin.
Old bay windows and passageways will be opened up throughout the building, plus visitors will be given the opportunity to explore the roof.
“These interventions represent a unique opportunity to rediscover the traces and ways in which the Grand Palais has withstood the test of time,” said the architects. “Our credo for the New Grand Palais is to complete and strengthen its formal logic through interventions that return a sense of modernity to its whole, all the while respecting its traditional identity.”
LAN will also add spaces for logistics and car parking within a new basement storey, install a climate-control system and modernise existing systems to bring the whole building in line with current building regulations.
Here’s a more detailed project description from LAN:
Grand-Palais
The new Grand Palais: an example of modernity
To our contemporary eyes, the Grand Palais is both an idea and a symbol of modernity. It is a hybrid building in terms of its architecture, its usage and its history. Neither a museum nor a simple monument, its architecture has an identity all its own, centred around the notion of a “culture machine”, a spatial means for hosting a vast diversity of events and audiences that exponentially exalts the site’s “universal” and “republican” vocation. The restoration and restructuring of the entire monument affords us the chance to reinforce this aspiration.
The coming restructuring foresees the implementation of a new circulation mechanism centred around the middle building, the restoration of the galleries surrounding the Grand Nave, the installation of a climate control system, the creation of a logistics centre, bringing the entire building up to code, and opening the large bay windows and passageways in order to restore the building’s original coherence and sense of transparency. These interventions represent a unique opportunity to re-discover the traces and ways in which the Grand Palais has withstood the test of time, survived changes in its function, to assert architecture as a point of departure, and the space as nurturing life and society.
Even though the initial reason for building the Grand Palais was to provide a site for presenting and promoting French artistic culture during the World’s Fair of 1900, the plan nevertheless envisioned durability and flexibility from the outset. Even though these many adaptations progressively complicated and depreciated certain parts of the Grand Palais, the intelligence of its general form and its original spatial intent have helped it survive these episodes and change with the times.
Our credo for the New Grand Palais is to complete and strengthen its formal logic through interventions that return a sense of modernity to its whole, all the while respecting its traditional identity.
The Jean Perrin Square and the ‘Jardin de la Reine’
The logical consequence of revamping the northern and southern access points, one of the challenges of the project, is that the middle building lies at the heart of our intervention. Our wish is to reinforce the sense of unity between the Grand Palais and the Palais d’Antin and to make the middle building the meeting point between the two. This approach respects the architects’ original intentions, namely to render the spaces and their development highly legible to users, such that they implicitly signify the building’s function.
The pure geometry of the rediscovered circle creates a new symbol and marker at the urban level for the entrance to the New Grand Palais. It will become a veritable place of its own that can host planned or spontaneous activities. Two ramps, designed on the basis of the geometric matrix provided by the steps and the fountain, will lead visitors from the level of the square at the base of the building towards the entrance. Facing the Seine there will be the entrance for specific audience and the independent access to the restaurant. The latter takes advantage of a large terrace orientated to the south, located below the Jardin de la Reine.
By creating a progressive transition from the urban space to that of the galleries, the first two floors of the middle building contain the ambulatory. It is a majestic, open volume with multiple levels that will allow the public to embrace the Grand Nave and the rotunda of the Palais d’Antin at the same time. In fact, it emphasizes the original east-west axis of the composition. Situated along the lower main level, ‘La Grande Rue des Palais’ organizes the different entrance phases in a clear sequence before leading the public to the various activities offered. The ambulatory will become the connecting platform for all exhibitions at the new Grand Palais. The materials chosen for la Grande Rue des Palais will link the exterior to the interior, the existing to the new. The dichotomy between the building’s foundation wall and the piano nobile, perceptible on the outside because of the change in stone colour, will continue inside the building.
Section C – click for larger image
The exhibition spaces
The restructuring of the National Galleries seeks to take into account the interdependence between comprehending a work and its formal and conceptual presentation. This becomes a unique opportunity to develop a vast range of diverse “situations” in terms of volumes, light, materials, and their relationship to the outside. It’s not simply a question of making the volumes flexible, but of giving them the ability to become an event in and of themselves. This process is not confined to the galleries; it can happen anywhere in the building, wherever the structure allows for it. By integrating innovative museographic concepts into the institution, the museum will be able to host works that, until now, have only been seen in alternative spaces for brief periods of time, and which have in fact not been commented on or valued enough.
The Palais de la Découverte will expose the public to other forms of culture, such as exhibitions, contemporary art, or high-quality live performances. Conversely, the public visiting the Grand Nave and the galleries will be exposed to new experiences upon visiting the Palais de la Découverte. The new temporary gallery in the Palais de la Découverte has been conceived with this in mind, as its central location concretises the link between these two realities.
For this project to become an effective way to hosting very diverse events and publics, it first of all demands a clear, flexible, and adaptable structuring of the spaces at hand. More than simply managing current needs, our proposal opens the door to the future evolutions of these needs. What is at stake is formulating a vision that in the long term can accept new parameters, evolutions in technology, and paradigm shifts.
The program led us to create an underground level, which will host the logistics spaces and the associated parking and loading spaces. These technical works will permit an increase in visitor capacity to the Grand Palais. The Grand Nave will thus be able to accommodate more than 11,000 persons compared to the current 5,200, and this will increase its total visitor capacity from the current 16,500 to more than 21,900 persons.
From the Grand Palais to the city – the flow of tourists and the observatory
The movement of visitors within the Grand Palais represents an opportunity for “showing off” the architecture. By drawing the visitor’s attention, these views will frame “details” in the architecture and the landscape, thereby giving them emphasis. These views reveal themselves progressively as one walks through the space. They disclose the connection of the spaces that allow visitors to locate themselves within the building and in relation to the city. The internal tourist itinerary continues outside, along the rooftop of the Grand Palais, allowing visitors to discover the roof, and it will provide them with unobstructed, totally new vistas of Paris.
The monument to the dawn of sustainable development
We made use of a philosophy based on five main design values: Effectiveness, Sobriety, Strengthening Cultural Heritage, Minimal and Passive Intervention, and Remaining at the Service of Users. By analysing what is already there, the project is able to resolve and transform the challenges into strengths while at the same time identifying and preserving the quality of the inherited resources. Users (and future uses) have been placed at the heart of the design process by attempting to understand the many activities exercised and also by taking into account comfort and environmental requirements, be they climatic, acoustic, lighting-related, hygrothermic, and so forth. This intersection of situations, inherited resources, practices and activities, comfort and environmental requirements constitute the multi-faceted basis for this intervention. To reveal what is already there means to draw on the inherited resources to construct micro-contextual responses. One must in the end be hyper-contextual.
A skin of chestnut shingles covers the facade of this multipurpose building at a school in the French town of Hostens by Dauphins (+ slideshow).
French architecture studio Dauphins designed the building containing playrooms and offices for a plot on the southern border of the school’s site, which is connected to playgrounds and other facilities by two bridges.
“The south orientation of the plot requires that the multidisciplinary leisure centre stretches and closes the composition of the existing school,” the architects explained.
“A dialogue is established with the playground so that the children’s universe is rounded off and can be fully shared,” they added.
The facility is constructed from a pine framework raised above the ground on concrete pillars.
Its undulating facade is clad in wooden shingles that reference local vernacular building methods.
“The skin made of chestnut tiles gives the building its character and allows an infinite variation of composition, making a contemporary citation of the traditional wooden skins,” said the architects.
South-facing windows are shielded from the sun by bulges in the facade, while the windows on the opposite side of the building push outwards to maximise space inside and create small alcoves.
An entrance porch at the end of one of the bridges connects to a corridor along which the building’s rooms are arranged.
Offices for staff are contained at the western end of the centre, close to a small kitchen and male and female bathrooms.
Multipurpose activity rooms for children aged from six to twelve are contained in the centre of the building, with rooms and toilet facilities for younger children at the eastern end.
Internal walls are made from a wooden framework filled with cob that contrasts with the exposed industrial ducting and wiring on the ceiling.
The height of the roof alters along the building’s length, adapting to the height of the children who use the different spaces.
Windows are positioned at a low level so children can see out when sitting or standing, while smaller windows higher up the walls introduce ventilation and provide views for the staff.
Photography is by the architects.
Here’s a project description from Dauphins:
Vaisseau d’essente – Multidisciplinary leisure center for childcare in Hostens
Presentation
The south orientation of the plot requires that the multidisciplinary leisure centre stretches and closes the composition of the existing school. A dialogue is established with the playground so that the children “univers” is being rounded off and can be fully shared. The program is divided into three sequences along the main circulation. Gateway entry enters the volume by creating a porch home, around which are organised local staff. In continuity then there are the room dedicated to “les grands”, associated with the multipurpose room, and finally separated by the connection to the school, the room dedicated to “les petits” punctuate the composition.
Around the circulation, are organised two trays which can be separated into two by a moving partition. Enjoying the greatest height, the volume is suitable for activities for children 6 to 12 years old. Framing the landscape, the windows are positioned at a particular height providing children a strong relationship with the landscape as they are sitting or standing. All along the main circulation the partitions are made with a wooden structure fill with cob. The project claims its local identity through the use of regional knowledge and the use of local material, the maritime pine. The structure is part of a dynamic recovery of the local industry, and the most rational means to optimise production costs and assembly.
The skin made of chestnut tiles, gives the building its character and allows an infinite variation of composition, making a contemporary citation of the traditional wooden skins.
The inflection of the roof has a direct effect on the inside, permitting variable heights (3.40m to 2.40m), adapted to users. The position of the large windows follow that logic and participates in the organisation of the facade. South openings create prominent integrating protections, while in the north, the window is moved to the outside to enjoy the small alcove from the inside. Above the large bow windows, small openings are provided for generating natural ventilation North/South, provide additional natural light and offer views to the management staff.
Next generations/Playful transmission
Childhood memories are a powerful base in the collective unconscious. We therefore consider valuable to be able to intervene in the development of young people. Our architect responsibility in this program lies in its ability to convey a positive vision and a healthy and supportive environment for generations to come. We started an educational and entertaining participatory approach to educate children about the building process. Some workshops/meetings were enough to interest them, and confirmed the belief that this approach really brings the project in the long term. Accompanying users is an integral part of our design work and conduct of the project.
Client: Communauté de Communes du Pays Paroupian Size: 400 m2 SHON Price: 700 000 €HT Team: dauphins architecture, BERTI, BET TCE Vecoor, OPC, B.Ing, BET bois Location: Hostens, Gironde, FR Completed: August 2013
These paper headdresses have been folded into the shapes of creatures from Chinese mythology by Paris accessories designer Qi Hu for the city’s Printemps department store.
Qi Hu created the spiky pieces for a display in Printemps using origami, a technique she developed growing up in China.
“Origami is our childhood game, it has affected me since I was little,” Hu told Dezeen. “I always use it as one of my main methods for my works, trying to tell Occident stories in an Oriental way.”
The designer explained that she was approached by the store’s visual merchandising department to create origami decorations for a display.
“I came up with the mask idea because it does not influence the clothing,” Hu explained.
“While they told me that they would put the decoration at the entry of the men’s section, I thought about guardians and some ancient creatures’ figures in front of Chinese traditional gates.”
Hu took the forms of revered Chinese creatures such as lions, dragons and kylins – a mix of a dragon, horse, ox and wolf – as the base shapes for the headgear.
The paper is folded into pointy shapes that resemble horns, tusks, teeth and ears.
The pieces are displayed on mannequins in the menswear department of Printemps and the designer describes them as being “full of masculine power”.
Although each piece in the collection is different, Hu reused some of the same techniques across all of the designs to speed up the folding process.
“I decided to modularise my design and I reuse and combine different elements,” said Hu. “Every mask has something in common but is truly unique.”
The headdresses are on show in the store until 18 March.
Paris studio Atelier Zündel Cristea has added a glass-walled extension that projects from the rear of this hundred-year-old house in the Vincennes suburb (+ slideshow).
Atelier Zündel Cristea was asked to reorder and optimise the interior of the early-twentieth-century property and began the renovation by removing existing annexes and interior walls that were reducing the usable living space.
“The distribution of spaces was very awkward, and any rapport between the house and the garden was nonexistent,” said the architects, who claimed that the original layout had restricted the potential 120 square metres of useable floor space to just 90 square metres.
Adding the extension and opening up new spaces including the attic and basement increased the home’s total occupied area to 220 square metres.
Annexed rooms at the rear of the house were replaced with the glass-walled addition that projects out towards the garden and incorporates full-height doors that can be slid open to connect the open-plan living area with the outdoors.
A roof terrace on top of the new extension can be accessed through doors from the master bedroom and incorporates two skylights that provide additional daylight to the dining room and kitchen.
The en suite bathroom of the master bedroom also opens onto the roof terrace so the occupants can look out at the garden from the bathtub.
A corridor leads from the front door past the living room and staircase to the dining area, with its glazed doors providing views of the trees in the garden from the entry.
A staircase connecting the entrance corridor on the ground floor with bedrooms on the first and second floors features curving walls and banisters, and is naturally lit by dormer windows at the top of the house.
The wood-panelled living area at the front of the house features a corner sofa and a fireplace built into the fitted cabinetry that continues along one wall into the kitchen.
Stairs leading from the living area to the garden continue down to a basement that houses an office with a window squeezed in under the extension.
A geothermal heat pump was installed in the basement at the front of the house to extract warmth from the ground for heating, while a double air flow ventilation system helps control air circulation and provides additional energy savings.
The house’s dilapidated front facade was updated and painted white, with additions including a second dormer window, new ironwork on the windows and a canopy above the door completing the new look.
The object of our renovation work is a house located in Vincennes, within the radius which surrounds the Château de Vincennes, a radius monitored by architects of historical monuments.
Before the renovation
The building seems to have remained largely in its original state since the beginning of the 20th century, and has not been renovated at all for at least thirty years. The distribution of spaces was very awkward, and any rapport between the house and the garden was nonexistent. In regards to an energy plan there was no insulation (neither within the walls nor within the attic spaces), and only single, non-waterproofed windows. The means of heating the house being individual gas burners. Almost a caricature.
In brief, the project consisted of: – the demolition of annexes damaged beyond repair – the completion in their place of an RDC extension around the preserved area of the house, which will open entirely upon the garden by means of a large bay window – the general overhaul of the house with restoration of the cellar and attic spaces
If the successful execution of a high-efficiency project, one that sought low emission levels, was in clear evidence of being pursued, we never forgot the primary aim of an architect that is to conceive of a beautiful structure with quality spaces in which people feel good. There is also the fact that a project seeking high-efficiency is not something readily apparent, that all the elements contributing to such efficiency are almost invisible, yet remain perceptible.
According to set buying and selling property regulations the house originally consisted of an inhabitable 120m², but in fact only 90m² were liveable. After the completion of work, thanks to attic spaces, a semi-recessed basement, and an extension, there will be approximately 220m² in which to live.
The heating is geothermal, with the installation of a heat pump. Interior comfort is ensured by double air flow ventilation. On the roof we envisioned solar panels as a means to produce clean, hot water.
Built: 2010 Client: private Architects: AZC Consultants: Choulet Construction cost: 0.3 M€ (ex VAT) Gross area: 220 m² Mission: Conception + construction Project: House
French designer Patrick Norguet has created the interior for a hotel in Nantes featuring compact rooms with wavy white louvred walls enclosing en suite bathrooms (+ slideshow).
Norguet was invited by hotel chain Okko to develop the interior of its first urban hotel, and responded by creating a scheme that makes the most of the small bedrooms.
Each room has a footprint of just 18 square metres, and incorporates a wall-mounted desk and a small settee squeezed into a corner next to the bed, as well as the enclosed en suite.
“We began by removing useless things, to focus us on the wellbeing of the user and integrate more information and services using new technologies,” Patrick Norguet told Dezeen.
The rooms feature curtains along one wall that can be pulled back to reveal a television and a small storage area with shelving and a clothes rail.
The louvred screens that provide privacy for the bathrooms are lined internally with curved glass to ensure the space remains bright and watertight.
Norguet used the slim Lines and Waves laminated porcelain slabs he designed for Italian ceramics brand Lea Ceramiche to cover the wall behind the headrest in the bedroom.
Elsewhere in the hotel, a large communal room is designed as a homely space where guests can meet and relax.
The lounge area is intended to evoke a comfortable clubroom environment, with sofas and armchairs surrounding low coffee tables picked out by accent lighting.
Textural wall panels, floor-to-ceiling curtains, rugs and upholstered furniture add to the relaxed feel.
A breakfast bar and facilities for making drinks and snacks can be accessed throughout the day and night, and there is a desk area where guests can work.
The design of the hotel’s fitness centre features bright red surfaces, industrial lighting and tiled walls that lend it a more vibrant aesthetic.
The four-star hotel in Nantes is the first to be opened by Okko and Norguet’s design scheme will be applied to future hotels in cities including Grenoble and Lyon.
Photography is by Jérôme Galland.
Here’s some more information about the Okko hotel from Patrick Norguet:
The first Okko hotel opens in Nantes
Okko hotel is, first and foremost, the story of my encounter with Olivier Devys, the project’s founder.
Starting with a blank page, we combined our visions and our determination to take up the challenge of upending traditional practices in the hospitality industry to create a bold and innovative concept, an all-included package for the best location, best service and best price! Thus was born the idea of a contemporary and urban four-star hotel where the human, design, and innovation are at the heart of the project.
I designed an adequate, simple, and timeless product around this “Okkospirit” to cater to customers’ new needs: a place unaffected by time or trends and where the notions of service and comfort are essential; to be able to work, dine, relax, be waited on or use anything freely, any time of the day; to feel like being home away from home. The high-end amenities and services in the modern and relaxing Okko room and in the vast and convivial Club room make the Okko hotel a unique place that combines aesthetics and comfort. I wanted to create a brand, not just a hotel!
News: a swimming pool, a theatre and a restaurant are among designs by French studios Oxo Architectes and Laisné Associés to renovate abandoned Metro stations in Paris (+ slideshow).
Arsenal Metro station converted into an art gallery
Manal Rachdi of Oxo Architects and and Nicolas Laisné of Laisné Associés were commissioned by Paris mayoral candidate Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet to develop possibilities for renovating the disused spaces into places where Parisians can go to eat, dance, watch a play or even exercise.
Arsenal Metro station converted into a nightclub
“Why can’t Paris take advantage of its underground potential and invent new functions for these abandoned places?” Rachdi asked. “Far from their original purpose, more than a century after the opening of Paris’ underground network, these places could show they’re still able to offer new urban experiments”
Arsenal Metro station converted into a swimming pool
These designs illustrate how Arsenal station, a disused stop near the Bastille that was closed in 1939 at the start of the Second World War and never reopened, could potentially be transformed into a swimming pool, theatre and concert hall, nightclub, art gallery or even refectory-style restaurant.
Arsenal Metro station converted into a park
“To swim in the metro seems like a crazy dream, but it could soon come true,” said Rachdi. “Turning a former Metro station into a swimming-pool or a gymnasium could be a way to compensate for the lack of sports and leisure facilities in some areas.”
Another solution included an underground park, which would require a series of skylights to be built into the station’s roof to provide natural light.
Arsenal Metro station converted into a theatre and concert hall
The plans have been criticised for their huge cost and the safety issues involved in converting stations that still have live electricity running through them. Jean-Michel Leblanc, of France’s state-owned public transportation operator RATP told Le Parisien that it would be extremely difficult to make these stations safe for public use.
If Kosciusko-Morizet wins the election on March 30 this year, she plans on crowdsourcing other ideas for repurposing Paris’s abandoned stations.
Arsenal Metro station converted into a restaurant
There are 16 disused Metro stations in Paris, most of which closed between 1930-1970. A small number were also built but never opened. Previously the stations have been used as temporary sets for advertising campaigns and films. Porte-des-Lilas, a disused station closed in 1935, was used as a backdrop in 2001 film Amélie.
“Cartier: Style and History,” is a unique show currently on display at the newly renovated Salon d’Honneur within Paris’ Grand Palais, which tells the story of French luxury label Cartier (known as “jeweler to kings”). The…
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