Building Phases - Individuality (from 1978)

La Défense - Quartier d`Affaires from the bird`s eye perspective

Although La Défense was weakened by the economic crisis, the government decided in 1978 to continue the building. In order to revitalize La Défense, they started an investment program of more than 100 Mio. Francs. The consequence was a new private investment. In the following years, the EPAD permitted so many building permissions as never before. In the map on the top you can see how La Défense looked like after this building phase from the bird`s-eye-perspective. After the third building phase, La Défense was said to be a museum of architecture which becomes very clear when looking at the map above and which is very impressive due to the fact that the other parts of Paris are completely different concerning architecture.
What changed?
The office space was reduced from 1,6 Mio. m² to 1,2 Mio. m².
The characteristics of the new building were:
  - energy-saving
  - ecofriendly
  - indvidual and different segments which should form a unity
  - interesting architecture
  - natural light
  - smaller offices
  - more individuality
All in all, they should provid better working and living conditions. The architects` motto was: Individuality, plurality and urban vitality. The pictures below show how the new concept was realized and how the buildings look like.

Tower Total (1985, D6, 187 meter, 48 floors)
Tower Société Générale (1995, 167 meter, 38 floors)

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Total

Société Générale

Apart from the office towers, one of the biggest shopping center in Europe was build - Les Quatre Temps (1981, D7) with a sales area of 110.000 m² . Furthermore,  new housing for 30.000 people was provided.
But it was not only the architecture of the office buildings that changed during this period. The big project  `completion of the axis` (La Grande Arche) was finished as well as the artistic decoration of La Défense.
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