Center of gravity of the Paris area, the heart of Les Halles was reorganized with „La Canopée” – the Canopy – a project by Patrick Berger et Jacques Anziutti architectes, winners of a competition in 2007. A light, translucent and large spanning building-shell protects a public space on several levels. It unifies a partially underground urban complex, where a metropolitan train station, a shopping complex and cultural facilities overlap each other. The two principal floors of the site are connected: the Forum below rises to the level of the city above. A new gateway to the city is created. In this project, seele has been awarded the decorative glass envelope for the building sections south and north, covering an area of about 12,000sqm, and the secondary structure of 900t of steel, adapted to suit the free-form design of „La Canopée”.

Header image: © Franck Badaire – Photographe