The Place Félix Eboué, a busy road junction in eastern Paris, is characterised by the hustle and bustle of city life, some striking late 19C constructions and a few newbuilds. Baumschlager Eberle Architekten were commissioned to produce a design that would occupy an infill site on one of its sides – a straightforward enough task on the face of it, at least for the architect content simply to transpose modern ideas of life and work in France’s Belle Époque to the present day. The building devised by Baumschlager Eberle Architekten sets the bar considerably higher, however, creating a framework for collective living in modern-day Paris that offers potential for the future as well as maintaining links with the past.

The innovative design concept is as clear as it is complex – to bring more light, more views and more greenery into the existing built environment – and its aim twofold: to project the dynamism of late 19C Paris into the present and to create a building its own unique identity.

1. Further information and an overview of the images freely available to the press can be found in the PDF download