Defence first European business district

Defence, first European business district... For the fiftieth anniversary of the place, superlatives are appropriate. But Friday last, at the bottom of the Areva Tower, trapped in a mini-renfoncement to avoid the rain by smoking his morning cigarette, an employee râlait against the escalators, too often fails. "Talking about tours very high to be in the 21st century fashion, but maintenance is another century..." ", noted an another regular.

According to Patrick Devedjian, President of the Epad, the future Signal Tower designed by architect Jean Nouvel, will be "the most important architectural gesture from the Eiffel Tower". But at the bottom of the towers, at the lunch break, we are hardly talking architecture, instead of the obstacle course to get a table in a restaurant right. Any more than it does gloss on fantastic characters of Joan Miro, the "large red Stabile" of Alexander Calder and the 60 works, which are the defence a huge Esplanade Museum of contemporary art in open pit. Easier to find a sculpture that public toilets, protested a resident of the neighbourhood...

Efforts of "humanization".

Fifty years after the onset of the CNIT, no one can dispute that the defence has won an aesthetic bet. Here, urban planning on slab, since very disparaged, allowed before any taken of ecological consciousness, free space of the car and build little by little a "work" coherent. However, the beauty of architectural objects is not always in line with daily life. Although immense efforts have been made to "humanize" the business district.

Among the many projects carried out on the site, which today carries all the votes, therefore, the renovation of the shopping centre of four times, completed this year with the opening of Castorama. "Issue clothing shops, he had the choice, but this is finally a useful trade!", blog Gilles, obviously little follower of fashion.

Overall, most users of defence lip today the "practical" side of the neighbourhood. "It has everything under the hands;" "If you have forgotten a last-minute gift, it's easy", note this young man in the commercial gallery. Efforts to animate the forecourt also won the vote: "We love the summer to the defence." "There is jazz festival, the stand of salsa behind the Calder, tangos the dome and the terraces courts," said a group of young girls. In winter, when the wind rushes to speed increased tenfold in the Grande Arche, the atmosphere is necessarily very different.

Saturated transport

Over a walk in the forecourt and the comments of each and the other, the defects and suitability of the business district appear quickly. Positive, a modern, convenient, comfortable, clean and rather safe place. Negative, the wind, the lack of places of conviviality, the difficulty to identify the space. "Here, when we want to go from one point to another, better take its time." "In appearance, everything is close, but it continues to lose," said an employee of Total. The saturation of the means of transport is of course the great subject of complaint by users.

"Closer to the urban human", such is the ambition for the future of Bernard Bled, Director of the Epad. A bet that, in fifty years, has still not earned. Continues to place a be deserted during office hours. The flow of workers who, as a colony of ants, invaded and deserted at fixed times defence, leads to a sense of dehumanization. Defence especially lacks this grain disorder and madness that characterizes the urban centres. "If we can transform the forecourt from time to time in the souk, this would be sympathetic", sighs a woman. Indeed, many people spontaneously cite the installation of a Christmas market as one of the pleasant novelties of the defence. Because, with focus on the "skyline", planners forget that it is impossible to walk, watching the sky.