Accedi
Utenti registrati
La Defense is built on an artificial ground that separates cars and pedestrian traffic. The podium is very windy, the towers have many services, which means the workers rarely go outside. The existing podium structure contains many empty and unused volumes. ENIA ARCHITECTES won a competition to rejuvenate the area by creating a restaurant complex at its heart. The design places three glazed buildings around a public square on the main axis of La Defense, creating a sheltered human-scaled resting space between the towers. Because of the physical constraints of the pre-existing structure, the MEP engineering solutions were developed from the earliest competition stages, in order to maintain the smallest footprint above ground and keep the kitchen and service areas invisible.
The project is located on the main urban axis of La Defense but breaks the symmetry by composing with diagonal and perspective views on its components. The three new buildings are 3.7, 5.5, and 8m high, a size that mediates the scale of the giant towers with the human scale. The staggered volumes frame views across the plaza. Each facade has alternating solid and glazed surfaces that give proper backgrounds to the ground-floor terraces. The placing of the openings is also designed to create diagonal and unusual viewpoints on the towers and public art. The intention is to give a different environment for the users, as a further incentive to leave their isolated towers. Finally, the placing of the buildings breaks the wind corridors that previously crossed the central plaza.
The pace of property development leaves many under-used and unused buildings in modern cities. Instead of forcing a cyclical reconstruction of the building fabric, the project proposes a strategy to transform and reuse those structures. Together with the developer, we adjusted the program to limit the structural work whilst maximizing the usable volume. The MEP system was envisioned at the earlier stages to fit the existing structure again to maximize the usage of the pre-existing built fabric.
Our project creates an urban place in the middle of La Defense by harnessing the way people perceive space. The offset volumes and cross views undermine the orthogonal grid of the towers and generate a slower rhythm, a breathing space for pedestrians. This disruptive effect is achieved with a spatial vocabulary of simple forms and regular volumes that extends and subverts the surrounding architectural language. Our guiding principle throughout the project was to provide for the different users of the building. The human scale speaks to the restaurant patrons, the focus on precise functionality and services allows a smooth operation by the clients
Enia has created an iconic building that still provides all the proper services necessary for our restaurants. TABLE SQUARE has become one of the most attractive spaces in La Defense, ever since it opened in 2020.
Founded in Paris in 2003, enia architectes is an architectural and design French firm. Our work spans a wide spectrum of building types and across all scales of operation which demonstrates our strong convictions: every building, whatever its purpose or size, contributes to the fabric of the city and necessitates an architecture that is sensitive to its user and its environment. In today’s carbon-conscious world, we believe that creating responsible architecture is foremost about fabricating conditions for harmonious cohabitation, a symbiosis between man and environment constructed from a reasoned economy of resources. At enia, confronting this diversity with an inquiring and creative spirit is what drives our reflection on each project - exploring places and cultures, embracing complexities, and challenging apparent contradictions - in order to uncover the right solution. Enia architectes has developed its activity with projects in India, China, Japan, Africa and Europe.
