Arc de La Défense

After the Roman Arc du Carrousel and the Arc de Triomphe, the creation of a third arch was the logical prolongation to Paris’ urban axis “Le Louvre-Étoile-Défense”. The new building does not constitute an isolated gesture, but is rather a part of the development of a historical sequence. As an urban gate, the arch – the archetype of the first man-made structure – visually connects the city of Paris with the modern extension of La Défense.

The ground plan is simple:  two rectangles, 35×56 meters, stand on a square, 150 meters on each side, and divide the platform into figures formed by squares of 47 meters on each side.

The composition of the façade is more complex. On the base of a square, 126 meters on each side, a series of two meters high (or two meters long) structures the ensemble. The empty space left in the center is 55 meters wide and 79 meters in height. The piers of the arch are 35 meters wide and 80 meters high and are subdivided into a base (25 long and 35 meters high), and a shaft (35 meters long and 54 meters high).

The Porte de la Communication operates in a clear way. In outline form, the general shape is composed of two vertical towers, the two piers, similar in type to modern towers containing the vertical communication cores, a distribution hall, or meeting rooms, in the centre and the offices arranged around the two central cores. The entablature, a bridge of 57 meters in width and 70 meters in height, rests on the elevator columns, which stand at a distance of 75 meters from each other.

In the plans, the roofed central space, the hall of the Communications Centre, is located on this bridge. Measuring 48 x 48 x 24 meters in height, opens onto both the historical city and the new part of the capital. Two groups of transparent elevators situated on the east façade will provide direct access to this hall, so that users may contemplate the historical axis of Paris as they travel up to the towers.

The structure is made of reinforced concrete. From ground level, the building rises to a height of 126 meters. The structure of the two piers consist of two vertical columns – four elevator cores – horizontally linked every three floors by a girder one floor in height. The ordinary floors are cantilevered into the columns of the central core. The entablature, as if it were a cement bridge, is built with the cantilevers formwork techniques, between the two piers. The construction of this bridge will not require any central scaffolding.

The entire building’s envelope is a curtain wall with lacquered aluminum shapes.  The triple glazing ensures thermal and acoustic insulation. The choice of colors for the glass, a combination of gray, light pink and blue hues, responds to the wish to relate the building to the nuances of the Paris sky, so that the structure will blend with it and serve as a reflection of the landscape.

This urban object must be a work of classical harmony in order for it to poetically translate the heritage of its predecessors.

Traditionally, the triumphal arch represents the exaltation of an individual act, but in this case we have inverted the symbolism to express the collective will.

The International Communications Centre is, metaphorically, the “head” of La Défense, the “brain” is situated in the center of the composition, that is, on the entablature of the arch. The ministries and offices are housed in the two bodies on either side.

According to this approach, the transparency of the urban axis is maintained and a future development of the axis is proposed, by which it would be formalized with a park extending to the Seine.

The view is closed by the culminating point of the arch on which the “brain” is situated and in which in turn receives and transmits the information to the rest of the world.

Even so, this project is intended to be carried out with modesty; the silhouette of the arch should not be perceived until the preceding arch, in the Place de l’Etoile, has been passed, just as the l’Arc de Triomphe, in turn, does not come into view until we stand beneath the Arc du Carrousel.