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Montparnasse Tower deserves a collective design. To this end, we brought together our experience and united our teams and resources so that the Nouvelle AOM team can today rise to this challenge that is both architectural and highly symbolic. The tower must reflect many different identities, and we feel that this plurality of vision begins with a team that has shown itself able to integrate conflicting ideas and views, right from the beginning of the project.
When we decided to undertake the extraordinary adventure that the Demain Montparnasse (‘Tomorrow’s Montparnasse’) international competition represented, it was with a desire to place the tower firmly within the 21st century’s environmental revolution. We nurture five ambitions for the new Montparnasse Tower, which constitute the core of our architectural project.
Firstly, Montparnasse Tower must be a tower of its time; in osmosis with the climate, the wind and the changing light of the sky. Consequently, the super-passive, positive-energy, very low carbon tower will be raised to the ranks of the most energy-efficient new buildings.
Secondly, the innovative approach to the facade allows the tower to respond to the wind in two ways – recovering the force of the dominant winds at the upper levels, and reducing unpleasant wind currents caused by downdraft around the base. A ‘tower of winds’.
We also wanted to use the top of the new Montparnasse Tower to produce sustainable energy: solar panels to supply the tower’s day-to-day electricity, and rainwater is captured in order to water the areas of planting not exposed to rainfall.
The vast glasshouse is to produce fruit and vegetables to supply the tower’s restaurants. Our project is also about opening the tower up to the people of Paris. The tower’s various functions will be visible from the exterior via a new, double-skin facade; leaving behind the opacity of the existing tower, the new, transparent Montparnasse Tower will be clear and bright. From the 14th floor, the highest gardens in Paris will add to the natural life of the city.
Our fifth ambition is to bring out the beauty of Montparnasse Tower, to exalt this familiar form on the Parisian skyline.
Today, winners of the competition, the team and its five partners are ready. We are ready to make this happen for Paris, for the thousands of people who work in the tower, for all the visitors who will come once it opens. We are ready to go and meet local residents and Parisians to join us in this adventure, to make Montparnasse Tower the architectural expression of Paris’ environmental revolution. The architectural expression of Paris’ environmental revolution.
Franklin Azzi Architecture, Chartier Dalix Architects, Hardel Le Bihan Architects