The building surrounds a subway station that is not very appealing and that stays on the foreground, next to a major urban place.
In order to assert its presence in such a context the building is massive and homogenous. It takes advantage of the maximal authorized height, covers the whole surface of the lot and can be described as a mere superposition of glazed and opaque layers.
The architectural quality of the structure comes from the fact that its massive “normality” is distracted by slight differences in the treatment of the façades. These dissimilarities generate a variety of atmospheres within the building.
The differences are subtle. They are obtained from an assemblage of various sets of aluminum profiles and different shades of glazing.
The façade grid of 1.35m stays the same. However, all along its length, the façade plane keeps changing due to slight overhangs and setbacks.
Since it is impossible to build on top of the subway station in order to improve the relation to the city we install a word in front of the building complex. A word is the opposite of a construction. Its mass is small, its sense is elusive, but its presence is great.
Thanks to this addition we create a building complex, a totality made of a big building, a dull construction and a monumental word.
