"The carbon debt obliges us. So much concrete has been poured that abandoning La Défense would be criminal. Let's take responsibility for this carbon legacy.” - Franck Boutté.

After a year of work, the vision for transforming La Défense was unveiled in front of 300 investors, companies and local personalities.

We are proud to have contributed to this reflection led by the group of 5 long-standing investors: Allianz France, AXA Investment Managers, Groupama Immobilier, Société Générale, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield).

The morphology of La Défense locally exacerbates the consequences of climate change: aeraulic phenomena, intense solarization, disruption of ecological continuities make the territory uncomfortable for all, and harmful to biodiversity, even more than elsewhere. But it is also a tremendous space for potential transformation.

“And the carbon debt obliges us. So much concrete has been poured that abandoning La Défense would be criminal. Let's take responsibility for this carbon legacy.” - Franck Boutté.

La Défense must work with what is already there, and thus minimize its recarbonization.

With a view to the future, we have proposed repairing the ecological discontinuities caused by the emergence of La Défense. Our aeraulic and sunlight studies have led us to develop a network designed to optimize user comfort throughout the year: seeking light and aeraulic serenity in winter; following the thread of shade, with the wind, in summer.

From bioclimatic entrance doors to refuge poles, the connecting routes weave an ecological and climatic network based on shading, evaporation, natural ventilation and plant evapotranspiration.

A work that is part of a multiple vision:

• A strategic vision: to make La Défense the European hub of innovation, around two major clusters of AI and climate, a “Campus La Défense” brand, the creation of the Incubator and the Open University of La Défense, 115,000 m2 dedicated to campus life;
  
• urban and architectural: a master plan for the neighborhood (Atelier Soil), a new square that is both a venue for events and a village square at the foot of the Grande Arche (2Portzamparc & Associés), the Forum, a new multimodal center (Syvil architectures), an Adventure Garden (Atelier Soil), La Défense sur Seine, which is both a pedestrian bridge and development of the river banks (Maud Caubet);
• programmatic: to turn the million square meters that will become obsolete within 10 years into an opportunity, by converting 275,000m2 of office space to new uses within 10 years.