Fictions as Practice
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(Un)Plug
La Defense, Paris, 2001
Architect: R&Sie(n)… Paris
(name of the agency at this time : R&Sie.D/B:L)
Creative team: François Roche, Stephanie Lavaux, Alexandre Boulin, Olivier Legrand,
Gilles Desevedavy; Collaborators: Benoît Durandin, Etienne Feher, David Topanni
Key dimensions: 10,000 m2.
Client: EDF
Cost : 60M$
Text :
Design of an office building in La Defense area, Paris.
Commissioned by the research department of the French Public Electricity Company
(EDF), to develop a sustainable building that gains its energy from the sun, and
in the same time which is affected, infected morphologically by its UV
radiation...
Scenario :
1) Realization of a generic office building.
2) Deformation of the reactive façade to respond to contact with renewable
energies:
- hairiness of the façade for thermal sensors
- swelling of the glass skin for the mono crystalline PV
cells
3) Disconnection (‘Unplug’) of the building from the urban ground and its energy
network.
