Fotos

This is another picture from La Défense, Paris. The building to the left houses the shopping centre Les Quatre Temps (The Four Seasons). A complete renovation of the shopping centre started in 2004 and was finished in 2008. The architect Anthony Beluschi designed the metamorphosis of the centre. It added 15,000 m² and the shopping centre is now offering a total space of 130,000 m². Altogether there are 230 stores at four levels. Among the shops found here are Zara Toys-R-Us, Castorama, Amant Cheri and Virgin.

The twin towers are the Tours Société Générale (also called Tour Alicante and Tour Chassagne) that were built in 1995 and the headquarters of France’s largest banking group.. The buildings are identical and were designed by architects, Michel Andrault, Pierre Parat and Nicolas Ayoub. The height of both towers is 167 and the number of floors is 37. In its interior the two towers differ though since one is decorated with red Alicante marble and the other with white Chassange stone from which the towers got their names

Finally at the right bottom of the picture you see the Tour Pacific designed by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. It was build between 1988-1992 and has 25 floors. The height is 90 meters. It is also called the Japanese Tower an seeks to marry Japanese Culture with European Culture. The curtain wall facade represents a sliding door of wood and paper (Shoji) while the curved facade represents European masonry-structured architecture and a pedestrian bridge represents Taiko Bashi (a traditional Japanese arch bridge). The building houses both offices and spaces for Japanese tradition and culture.