“A tower is actually a mutli-purpose asset.”

How did the La Défense 2050 project come about and what are its ambitions?

Pierre-Yves Guice: This is a project led by five major property owners in La Défense, who have come together to develop ideas for transforming the buildings in the district. The aim is to address two historical weaknesses in La Défense, inherited from the time of its construction, which have become particularly evident with Covid and the upheavals that took place at that time.

The first is the neighbourhood’s hyper-specialisation in office work. This has resulted in offices that are all based on a certain way of designing workspaces, which is now outdated. This vision is rapidly becoming outdated with the expansion of teleworking, the rapid evolution of business organisation over the last four or five years, the renewal of generations in the labour market, etc.

People now want to work in an environment that offers the services they need: shops for groceries, nurseries for childcare, gyms open almost 24 hours a day, etc. Local restaurants can no longer rely on lunchtime service alone and must develop evening offerings to boost their revenues. And in the face of the housing crisis in Paris, La Défense offers attractive prices for individuals. All of this is encouraging a rethink of the neighbourhood around mixed use.

The second weakness is the very low resilience of this form of urban planning to climate change and energy crises. It is the legacy of a way of building cities and real estate that is very energy-intensive, dating back to a time when energy and materials were abundant and practically free. However, we have since realised that resources and energy are not inexhaustible, and that their use poses problems in terms of both the quality of the living environment and the climate sustainability of cities. We are therefore forced to do things differently.

What actions have been taken based on this observation?

Pierre-Yves Guice: There are two dimensions: the construction of new projects and the renovation of existing buildings. Regarding the former, in 2022 we launched a call for projects, called “Empreintes” (Footprints), aimed at developing proofs of concept, demonstrations of what tomorrow’s real estate in La Défense could look like. The objective is to prove that we are not doomed to constantly reproduce the same office buildings and the same types of real estate that have existed for 60 years.

To do this, we selected four projects, all led by investors and architects, which emphasise functional diversity. In addition to offices, there will be housing, shops and sports facilities. These are also buildings with a higher level of environmental quality, thanks to architectural choices that differ from traditional towers. For example, it is thanks to this call for projects that France’s largest off-site construction project, using prefabricated timber structures, will see the light of day. It is also thanks to this call for projects that we will have the first real tower block to comply with the 2025 French environmental regulations.

For the second dimension, the renovation of existing buildings, intensive work on the transformation and regeneration of the existing building stock has been carried out with the major property owners in the district. La Défense currently has just under 4 million square metres of office space. Of this total, around 1 million square metres is technically obsolete, meaning it has not been renovated for more than 20 years.

These are buildings that could be ripe for a change of use, challenging the neighbourhood’s single-functionality. In concrete terms, we are taking advantage of these restructuring projects to develop retail outlets at the foot of buildings and public facilities that contribute to the overall vibrancy of the area. One notable example is the restructuring of the Aurore tower, which was completed in the second half of 2024. This building, typical of the 1970s, was renovated to include a pavilion housing shops, restaurants, a hotel school and collaborative workspaces, all of which help to open up the building to the city and prevent it from functioning in isolation.

Other examples include the Ariane tower, with shops at the foot of the building, and the CB3 building, which will house Sanofi next year, also with shops, restaurant terraces, etc. Another example is CB21, a building that is over 50 years old and has been completely redesigned by its owner Covivio, with a wide range of services on the ground floor, meeting spaces and sports facilities.

This office transformation movement is therefore well underway. The next step will be to transform certain buildings more radically, introducing housing and hotels in order to diversify even further. Two office buildings have already been converted into hotels, but much more could be done. The idea is really to take advantage of this movement to upgrade existing buildings, which is necessary in any case to optimise the neighbourhood’s environmental and energy performance results, in order to develop uses that are currently lacking in La Défense.

The towers of La Défense are iconic assets of the district. How can their very specific characteristics be enhanced in this phase of transformation?

Pierre-Yves Guice: We have realised, particularly in recent years, that even in a rectangular tower with a geometric structure, it is possible to design modern, pleasant spaces that are conducive to collective work and are more adaptable and flexible.

A tower is actually a multi-purpose asset. For example, its structure can be used for teaching, broadcasting and public presentation purposes. There are also some very simple things: for example, Covid has led us to rediscover the virtues of staircases. We no longer wanted to be confined to lifts, but to be able to see people and move around freely.

In all recent tower renovations, we are therefore seeing the emergence of staircases that allow people to move from one floor to another, thereby creating living spaces on a human scale. To take the example of the Aurore tower, there are now stairwells connecting each other in pairs, creating large spaces of 2,500 m².

Similarly, in The Link tower, which will be Total’s future headquarters, the staircases allow for the creation of 3,000-4,000 m² spaces that can accommodate between 150 and 200 people. This creates a much less anonymous, almost family-like atmosphere. By utilising the advantages of towers, such as their rational architecture, it is possible to create much more pleasant working environments.

In reality, a tower is much more flexible than a Haussmann-style Parisian building, where you quickly find yourself limited by the façade grid, load-bearing walls, small floor plates, etc. By adapting it to current needs, companies are rediscovering the advantages of the tower.