La Défense, Paris, France
Led by Philippe Chiambarett and his team at PCA-stream Philippe Chiambaretta Architecte, the soon to be completed Link tower for Groupama Immobilier will accelerate the historic transformation of the business district of La Défense into a lively area reconnected to the city that began ten years ago with the northern ring road and numerous other developments, including Arena, Rose de Cherbourg, and Oxygène.
The Link’s strategic location, at the boundary between the slab of La Défense and the city of Puteaux, makes it a powerful tool for land-planning for Paris La Défense.
PCA-STREAM was tasked by Groupama to design an innovative tower that will renew the image of La Défense.
Revisiting the model of the traditional tower, The Link is emblematic of the transformation of working practices and a new relation to the city. Its morphology in two wings connected to one another with platforms called “links” allows the tower to provide spaces that foster interactions and collective intelligence and gives an unprecedented place to nature in a high-rise building.
The tower’s name is taken from the shape of the building, composed by two different wings “linked” at every floor with a connection platform, in order to obtain a general area of 3000 square meters.
Floors will be also related two by two, in order to give at every building unit the possibility to have a double surface.
As an urban transformation project, The Link will rebalance the skyline of La Défense and create its new symbolic gateway, with the Tour First tower.
The Link will act as a new landmark on the Axe royal, extending from the Louvre, the Champs-Élysées, and the Arc de Triomphe, visible from all over Paris and the metropolis.
The construction of The Link on a layout slightly rearranged compared to the existing Gan Michelet buildings (slated for demolition) will create a new access towards La Défense from Puteaux, with a spacious thirty-meter-wide opening that will reconnect the slab to the city, especially as far as the mobility impaired and bicycles are concerned.
The construction works to accompany the transformation of the ring road, currently consisting of four expressways with no pedestrian crossings and surrounded by a “no man’s land”, into a pacified urban boulevard specially adapted for pedestrians and soft mobilities.
The Link will the first high-rise with a proper entrance on the boulevard accessible on foot or by bicycle.
The Link will activate the complete refurbishing of Cours Michelet, a historic district of La Défense that has remained unchanged since the 1980s, in order to revise the landscape design and revive its connections with the city.
The Link contributes financially to the restructuring of Metro Line 1’s Esplanade station, which has become necessary to solve congestion and foster low-carbon means of access to the business district.
The Link contributes financially to the restructuring of Metro Line 1’s Esplanade station, which has become necessary to solve congestion and foster low-carbon means of access to the business district.
Philippe Chiambaretta has also re-examined the basic tenets of a conventional high-rise tower, in order to address a complete change of paradigm in the way work is organized.
The Link invents a new horizontal dimension. PCA-STREAM has imagined an optimal shape for this innovative tower, capitalizing on the exceptionally large parcel of land by splitting the high-rise building in two distinct wings, interconnected by thirty platforms—the “Links.”
These platforms are more than eight meters wide and offer hanging gardens boasting spectacular views. They are designed as meeting grounds and each platform becomes a new “village square.”
By connecting the two buildings, these platforms create 3,000 sqm office floors, a size unrivaled in all of La Défense.
Joined two to two by a wide and bright staircase, these spaces form duplexes with a surface area of 6,000 sqm that can accommodate up to 500 staff, i.e. four times more than in a conventional office high-rise.
By connecting the two buildings, these platforms create 3,000 sqm office floors, a size unrivaled in all of La Défense.
Joined two to two by a wide and bright staircase, these spaces form duplexes with a surface area of 6,000 sqm that can accommodate up to 500 staff, i.e. four times more than in a conventional office high-rise.
Each duplex will have its own organic life in which travel will be on foot, without having to resort to an elevator, the intention is to generate increased human interaction and serendipity—a powerful catalyst for innovation.
With its 2,800 sqm of outdoor spaces (a new record for an office tower in France) including 6 large terraces, 15 outdoor hanging gardens, six naturally-ventilated winter gardens, and two rooftop gardens, The Link will be the first true “open-air” tower.
No employee will sit at more than a thirty-second walking distance from outside space.
As an iconic belvedere overlooking Paris, the landscaped garden on the rooftop, towering 154 meters above ground level creates a new view of Paris and the Axe royal (Arc de Triomphe, Concorde, Louvre) which will soon become a worldwide legend.
The full-height glazed façade (exceptional in La Défense) delivers dramatic brightness.
Project: The Link
Architects: PCA-stream Philippe Chiambaretta Architecte
Project Management: ADIM Paris Île-de-France — contrat de CPI
AMO Investissor: Egis Conseils — MA — CAPTIM
General Contractor: BATEG
Prime Contractor: Artelia
Structural Engineering Consultancy: Setec TPI
Landscape Architects: Coloco Paysage
Client: Groupama Immobilier
