RSHP to design a new mixed-use development in Paris

We are pleased to announce our recent win of the Jean Moulin site competition in La Défense, Paris. Our winning proposal will transform an area currently overshadowed by road infrastructure through the creation of a low-carbon development, featuring two mixed-use buildings and a new public space.

A long low-rise building will provide six to eight   levels of flexible office space and a three-stepped green rooftop. Its street-level pavilion will offer 250m2 of social and cultural space, a 1400m2 upper level with a food court, an indoor market hall and a terrace offering spectacular views. To the north of the site, a taller building will provide 200 homes for students and young professionals. With climbing walls, a yoga area, and a café at the lower levels, meeting the community's need for sports facilities.

The project aims to cut embodied and operational carbon by 50% through building the offices and residences in a modular prefabricated timber structure. Parts of the fit-out will be repurposed from other buildings, and the entire project will be prefabricated off-site to reduce waste and pollution.

At the heart of the scheme is a new green promenade connecting Puteaux to the Esplanade de La Défense, with multiple pedestrian links and pocket parks. 

Stephen Barrett, Partner, RSHP says “The project represents a significant challenge, occupying as it does an interstitial site currently dominated by large scale infrastructure and marked by radical changes of level that are presently almost impossible to navigate. Illustrating the fact that it is possible to transform such difficult environments into places where future generations can live and work well, delivering an inclusive, exemplary mixed-use low carbon development in the process, is precisely why we consider this project so important.”

Nicola Carnevali, Associate, RSHP says “As a result of an extensive and fertile process of dialogue with various stakeholders since the competition stage, our winning proposal reflects how important it is to base sustainable design on shared ambitions. We have taken on very seriously the challenge and opportunity of delivering a post-carbon urban vision for a world-class business district undergoing profound changes.”

Georges Siffredi, President of the Département des Hauts-de-Seine and of Paris La Défense, says “The winning team for the project Empreintes shares our vision of a new urbanism imagined for the future of La Defense. Sustainability, mixed-use, reversibility, have been placed at the core of the proposal. The Jean Moulin redevelopment will allow the renewal of this neighbourhood and the creation of new urban links between the business district and Puteaux city centre.”

Séverine Chapus, Deputy CEO of Property Development at BNP Paribas Real Estate, says “The project led by BNP Paribas Real Estate and Spie batignolles immobilier integrates an exemplary environmental approach, in-line with Paris La Défense ambitions for a post-carbon business district. This project is anchored within the neighbourhood, it creates new animated and pacified urban linkages, it also promotes mixed use at every level.”

Avenue Jean Moulin will be transformed into a tree-lined boulevard with reduced space for cars, two new bus stops and a cycle lane.