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Tête de la Défense

Paris, France
Design completed 1971

Twin office tower development with public plaza, infrastructural and mass transit links and parking
 

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This project was designed for an extraordinarily privileged site at the Tête, or head, of La Défense, the satellite commercial district developed outside Paris to protect the historic city from modern high-rise encroachment. With the commission came the weighted responsibility to consider the needs of existing and future development, to respect the tradition of French urban planning and most critically, to preserve the celebrated axis that stretches along the Champs Elysées from the Louvre through the L'Arc de Triomphe and straight on to La Défense.

The solution involves two sculptural towers joined below ground and fully integrated into the multilevel infrastructural and transportation network that underlies La Défense. Above ground each tower starts with a bar and then curves back, like a seashell, as it rises. The unique proposal demonstrated that it was indeed possible to erect a very large building in this key location without obstructing one of the most famous view corridors in the world. At the same time, the design provided the closure necessary to both extend and terminate the axis. Because topographical variations concealed the lower portions of the towers from distant view, the space at ground level was prevented from leaking away and shaped instead to provide an urban gathering place for the collective benefit of the full La Défense precinct.

Major Components

645,000m² tower; 326,750m² parking; 243,720m² public spaces including 125,300m² tourist facilities; 216,620m² retail; 16,500m² SNCF/train station; total infrastructure: 591,660m²; total superstructure: 627,620m²; project total: 1,219,280m²

I. M. Pei & Partners services

Master Planning; Architctural Design

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