Beaugrenelle Shopping Centre | Valode & Pistre

At Beaugrenelle, the creation of a new-generation venue dedicated to shopping is an opportunity to breathe life back into a whole district:

The continuous façades aligned with the streets wind around three new blocks like immense ribbons. They give the centre unity and an architectural identity. The pedestrianised and tree-lined streets encourage window-shopping. The aerial walkways and commercial crossings provide multiple connections between blocks and districts. New silhouettes for Paris on the banks of the Seine, the blocks surround the Pont de Grenelle like the symbolic bows of two ships.

Beaugrenelle’s architecture at is based on natural light; it is transparent, fluid and comfortable: The atriums, covered by vast coloured-glass canopies and criss-crossed by escalators, become the real heart of each block. The light flows freely and the public takes the stage. The design fluidity of the galleries, atriums, walkways and connections guides the comings and goings of visitors. The mesh design on the façades, walkways and glass canopies evokes Paris's ironwork, the Eiffel Tower and the neighbouring Pont de Bir-Hakeim, brought emphatically into the 21st century.

Beaugrenelle is an example of ecological urban architecture: Its roof is a vast garden, creating a sanctuary for both flora and fauna. The double-skin façades are broken up by residential buildings, the etched glass giving way to typically Parisian shrubs to create a veritable wall of green. Altogether, these technical and architectural measures have earned the project the labels HQE and BREEAM.