L’arbre Blanc at France is redefining the defination of tower design
- Vol.36(9), September
- New Delhi Burda Media India Private Limited 2019
- 22-30p.
A unique project since its origin: In 2013, Montpellier city council launched the ‘Folie Richter’ competition. It sought to identify a blueprint for a beacon tower to enrich the city’s architectural heritage. The RFP stressed the desire for a bold project that had to fit into its environment and include shops and homes. The brief was clear: city hall wanted a team made up of a young architect working with an experienced colleague… Manal Rachdi and Nicolas Laisné, who each run their own practices, decided to call on the Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. All three of them seek inspiration in nature even if they express it in very different ways. On this project, these three visions would be mutually enriching. To get the project off the ground, Manal Rachdi, Nicolas Laisné and his young partner Dimitri Roussel flew to Tokyo in summer 2013. For five days, they shut themselves away in Fujimoto’s studio for intensive workshop sessions. Marie de France, a partner architect and current head of Sou Fujimoto’s practice in France, was central to the process, facilitating dialogue between the Tokyo and Paris teams. Sitting around a table laden with paper and pencils, they began to draw in an open and informal atmosphere. To reinvent the tower, the architects focused on the human dimension, creating public spaces at the bottom and top of the building: the ground floor is a glass-walled space opening out onto the street, while on the roof there is a bar open to the public and a common area for residents, so that even the owners of first-floor apartments can enjoy the view.