Morland Mixité Capitale

As winning project of Réinventer Paris, MorlandMixitéCapitale comprises the transformation of the Préfecture de Paris, designed by Albert Laprade in the 1960s. The concept by David Chipperfield Architects and Calq Architecture provides for careful restoration and extension measures of the existing building. The building complex of around 40,000 m² hosts a mixed program of housing, offices, hotel, youth hostel, children’s nursery and shops.

A new volume forms the outer perimeter of the city block to the boulevard and thereby creates a generous courtyard. Another new building on the river Seine front and two additional courtyards are built. The arched arcades, which form a counterweight to the existing tectonic column structure, are characteristic of the plinth architecture of the new building parts. Studio Other Spaces (Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann) designed the rooftop bar and restaurant. The artists transform the two upper floors of the existing building into an immersive visual art installation.

Besides the facade and the work of Eliasson, we were also involved in the development of the vaults on the first floor (form finding, construction development).

The facades of the complex are divided into three processing types given they are either refurbished such as the core and the existing buildings wings, or created as part of the two new buildings facing the boulevard and the Seine, or almost invisible as part of the new panoramic restaurant.