Groupama Real Estate and PCA-STREAM unveil The Link, a tower that will convey a new image for La Défense and serve as an emblem of the reinvention of work and the transformation of our relation to the city.
PCA-STREAM has imagined a highly specific morphology for this innovative tower, capitalizing on the size of the parcel by splitting it in two distinct wings that are interconnected by thirty platforms, the “Links.” These platforms are the key defining and distinctive feature of the tower. They are more than eight meters wide and are offer on each floor terraces and hanging gardens that boast spectacular views. The Links are designed as spaces for collective work and as meeting points for users—in other words, they act as real “village squares” within the high-rise tower.
“The towers we have in La Défense are basically stacks of office floors with an average surface of 1,800 sqm, in which employees are isolated in small groups of 150 people. Access to the natural light is uneven, outdoor spaces are non-existent, and common spaces in which to work together are very limited. The traditional office tower does not address the new paradigm of work spaces, namely as places that foster cohesion, a sense of togetherness, and collective intelligence all the while providing comfortable conditions to all its users. This can create a sense of isolation and anonymity among employees who can often only meet up at the foot of their tower”. - Philippe Chiambaretta
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La Vie à l’œuvre (Life in the Making), a collective of researchers in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, as well as artists, was set up at the Université Paris Sciences & Lettres in 2014 to explore interdisciplinary collective intelligence around the theme of the living. Functioning as an incubator of ideas, they explore the potential of living beings, particularly via experiments between art and science. A Stream 05 – New Intelligences article to discover!
Aesthetic of Structures is a collective work published by the Architects-Engineers & Engineers-Architects association (AAIIA). Established agencies, young practitioners, researchers and students discuss a new relationship with structures, moving away from the Vitruvian principles of utility, solidity and beauty, towards an economy of materials, reversibility of use and the reuse of materials. Here we meet two of the book’s designers: architect-engineer Antoine Laugier and graphic designer Thanh-Phong Lê, who give us an insight into the book, as an object and as a structure.
The French underground and aerial landscape is made up of approximately 910,000 km of drinking water distribution pipes, and over 1.4 million km of power lines. Indispensable in our daily lives, they are nonetheless invisible and increasingly questioned in the light of ecological and technological challenges that are transforming our territories. But can’t these infrastructures be seen as a heritage to be maintained and cared for?
Justine Emard is a visual artist. Her installations use AI to understand the living, exploring the boundaries between organic life and artificial intelligence. Bee swarms, encephalographic recordings and prehistoric paintings become learning supports for algorithms that, contrary to dystopian imaginations, generate new supra-hyper-organisms.
Aurélie Mossé is a designer, researcher and head of the Soft Matters research group at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs. Using micro-organisms, she is experimenting with the manufacture of innovative materials that are less costly in terms of fossil fuels or non-renewable resources. By producing calcite, bacteria could become allies in the creation of solid building materials.
Although soil is used as a building material in many parts of the world, it has often been regarded as a waste product in France in recent decades, with little use being made of excavated soil. However, its thermal and hygrometric properties, its extremely low carbon footprint when used raw, its abundance and the natural variations in colour that it offers in every region make it a rich and inspiring material for today’s architects and designers. How can we adapt our building techniques to bring this material into line with contemporary requirements, and get rid of the vision of primitive housing that it still evokes for many people?