Tour Saint-Gobain / Valode & Pistre

Architects: Valode & Pistre
Area: 49000 m²
Year: 2019
Photographs: Sergio Grazia, Laurent Kronental
Manufacturers: AutoDesk, Kuraray, Saint-Gobain
Lead Architects: Denis Valode – Jean Pistre
Building Contractor: Vinci
Consultants: Batiss, Lasa, Artelia
Engineering: Egis, TERRELL, Artelia, Arcora, Movveo, G-Sir, Transsolar, 8’18’’
Landscape: Raphia
Clients: Generali, Saint-Gobain
City: Paris
Country: France

Tour Saint-Gobain, a 165-meter-high tower with 44 floors in La Défense designed by Valode & Pistre, exemplifies environmental quality and urban integration. Designed with three crystalline prisms, the building captures light and transparency while incorporating nature through accessible gardens on all floors. It features distinct sections for office spaces, services, and reception areas, reflecting Saint-Gobain’s leadership in construction materials and commitment to energy efficiency.

The Tour Saint-Gobain, a striking 165-meter-high building with 44 floors and about 49,000 square meters, is designed to achieve exemplary environmental quality. The project emphasizes urban integration, energy performance, and user comfort.

Designing a new tower in La Défense today involves addressing various challenges: creating a flexible and efficient space, navigating technical and construction constraints on a complex site, ensuring quality living conditions in a high-rise building, evolving the business district into a more urban model, and representing the symbolic headquarters of a major French company.

Despite these challenges, a tower is fundamentally about people and their experiences. Architects strive to evoke emotions and excitement through the building’s design.

The Tour Saint-Gobain achieves this with an architectural design reminiscent of three crystals capturing and scattering light through reflection and transparency. The dynamic silhouette, composed of three oblique prisms resembling a head, body, and foot, interacts warmly with surrounding towers, creating a welcoming gesture.

Nature plays a central role in the design, with large greenhouses enhancing the building’s aura and environmental performance. Gardens on all floors are directly accessible from office spaces, creating a connection to nature.

The tower is designed as a prime resource for Saint-Gobain, divided into three distinct parts:

The main body, devoted to office space.
The lower part, housing services such as open access areas and a showroom on the esplanade level.
The upper floors, located in the top glazed prism, containing reception areas, meeting places, and the “espace plein ciel,” a panoramic gathering area.

The office floors offer panoramic views and strong natural lighting, with accessible, wind-sheltered outdoor gardens enhancing the working environment.

Tour Saint-Gobain is environmentally and energy-efficient, with architectural and technical solutions contributing to its overall efficiency.

The building’s design reflects Saint-Gobain’s qualities, emphasizing its leadership in construction materials and products. Its crystalline architecture highlights the aesthetic qualities and properties of glass, such as light transmission, thermal insulation, and low emissivity, embodying Saint-Gobain’s traditional activities.