Paris, France
The design of the 50m-high wooden tower began from a deep understanding of the given site and its designation as a new residential centre at the south-east end of Paris. At the intersection of multiple flows, networks and scales, the project balances between the monumental and the domestic.
The grid, legible on the facade, comes from the idea of the inhabited wall and it is used as a filter to keep the growing, densely built urban environment, at a distance. The design of the frame and its proportions derives from a structural necessity but also from the will to emphasize the verticality of the building. Giving longer proportions to the facade allows it to measure up against the great heights that surround it and participate fully in this monumental landscape. In contrast to this massive and introverted inhabited wall, there is the transparent base, a public space that aspires to be part of the city and opens onto it.
The attention given to the materiality in charred and pre-weathered wood can also be found in the care given to the layout of the residential units. All have a private exterior space, through which a discrete and respectful link is woven between interior and exterior, nature and city, private and public, towards the budding neighbourhood and its inhabitants.