La Défense #11: Tour Descartes
By Hans-Josef Jeanrond on Saturday 26 May 2007, 16:16 - La Défense - Permalink
Built in 1988 (architects URQUIJO, MACCOLA and WILLERVAL) and renovated in
2000, Tour Descartes houses the IBM headquarters.
If the entrance hall dates a bit, the exterior is relatively timeless in its
bold elegance.
Even though the tower is not directly accessible via the pedestrian platform of
the "parvis", its height (40 floors) gives it a "presence" amongst the other
buildings closer to the main axis of La Défense, and its reflection can be
picked up in other buildings over quite some distance.
The reflections in these images offer very different appearances: From cool
elegance to decaying morbidity.
These images illustrate very well the concept of "saisir
l'éphémère" that pervades my project at La Défense: the "deconstructive"
force of some reflections shows the building in potential states of
decay.
The tower next to Descartes, formerly Septentrion, and in its "second life"
(after complete refurbishing in 1998) resuscitated as Tour Europlaza, provides
a reflecting surface for Descartes, where "two worlds" merge.
"Deux Mondes"
The
image to the left and the one below show Tour Descartes reflected in the new
Tour CBX.
In the image below, the carved out part of Descartes seems to be continued
in an elliptic form in the reflection.
And now for the impressions of "decay":
"Camouflage"
Comments
Is anyone reading this blog?
Y a-t-il des lecteurs de ce blog?
Liest jemand diesen Blog?
Looking at the number of posted comments, one could think that this blog leads a very lonely existence. And yet, there are more than 350 visitors a month, even after subtracting the spam visitors that want to sell you “cheap medicine” or lure you onto Web sites with “adult content”. (I hope the spam filter of the hosting company will continue to block such comments before they can annoy you.)
350 visits is not a lot, but for such a confidential blog as this one it is not bad. It is a pleasure to entertain you, thank you very much for your interest.
One should imagine that most of you come to visit the blog once a new posting goes online – and one might argue that there should be more frequent postings – and yet: against all expectations, there was a very strong peak of visits last Saturday (19/05), a whole week after the previous posting.
Maybe many of you came to have a look whether there was anything new. If that is the case, and you were disappointed finding nothing new, I apologize for the long pause up to this blog. (Subscribe to the RSS feed of the blog in order to be alerted to new postings – on the right side of the post you find the heading “Subscribe”.)
Even though the statistics tell me that I am not alone on the blog, and even though some of you write me emails (more private, of course) with their comments, don’t hesitate to leave your comments below. If you don’t want to leave your email address for fear of being spammed afterwards, simply use mine. (DS has tried it and it works!)
Plus de 350 visiteurs par mois, ce n’est pas mal pour un petit blog confidentiel. Merci de vos visites et toutes mes excuses pour le long délai depuis le dernier billet. Si vous voulez être sûr qu’il y ait des nouveautés avant de venir sur le blog, souscrivez au « RSS feed » (à droite sur le blog sous « Subscribe »)
Die Statistiken trösten über den Mangel an Kommentaren hinweg : Mehr als 350 Besuche pro Monat sind nicht schlecht für einen kleinen unbekannten Blog. Ich hoffe, die 47 Besucher des letzten Samstags kamen nicht alle in der Hoffnung auf einen neuen Eintrag. Wenn doch, dann bitte ich um Entschuldigung für die lange „Sendepause“ und schlage vor, das Abonnement des „RSS-Feeds“ zu benutzen, um über Neuigkeiten informiert zu werden.
Selbstverständlich würde ich mich über mehr Kommentare freuen.
Best regards,
Cordialement
Herzliche Grüsse
Hans-Josef