PARIS | Tour D2 | 525 Feet | 37 Floors

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

The Squashed Gherkin Of Paris

Published on 16-09-2010 by Skyscrapernews.com

Construction is soon to start on a new skyscraper in Paris's central business district, La Defense.

The site is currently occupied by the VERITAS Building, one of the shortest blocks in the high-rise district and it is this which is going to be imminently demolished to allow the construction of the tower, D2.

With 37 floors and a height of 171 metres, D2 won't be the tallest building in the district but it will be one of the most distinct thanks to the structural diagrid on the exterior that looks more like a design from Foster and Partners than Architectes Anthony Bechu et Tom Sheehan.

With semi-circular curving ends book-casing the length of the towers footprint, and a curved roof where the top level of the building uses transparent rather than reflective glazing to strongly express the diagrid, the scheme is almost like a squashed gherkin.

The towers facade even tapers in marginally at the base to expand the public area around its boundary behind the diagrid just like that well known London skyscraper, whilst the top floor of the building will contain a sky garden with the cross-bracing looping over like whalebone.

Despite the economic problems that have halted many of the large projects in La Defence, Tour D2 the developer, Bouygues Immobilier is set to rise in 2011.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/2647TheSquashedGherkinOfParis_pic1.jpg
http://www.skyscrapernews.com/news.php?ref=2647

http://www.coloco.org/fichiers/_news_10965_images-pour-site-01-copie.jpg
http://www.coloco.org/fichiers/_news_10965_images-pour-site-01-copie.jpg

http://www.linternaute.com/savoir/grand-chantier/photo/les-projets-de-tours-en-france/image/tour-d2-370944.jpg
http://www.linternaute.com/savoir/grand-chantier/photo/les-projets-de-tours-en-france/image/tour-d2-370944.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4950/66617540.jpg
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4950/66617540.jpg

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:q19BLMtzbm5ObM:http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6554/d2diapopasserellekg3.jpg&t=1
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:q19BLMtzbm5ObM:http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/6554/d2diapopasserellekg3.jpg&t=1

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/tourd2.bmp
http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/tourd2.bmp

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Grf.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Grf.jpg

[mousquet]

:ancient:
Yes, but this time it's coming up! at last. So, for now they're just tearing down the low-rise that D2 will replace.
Pictures by Jex :worship: ; he took these yesterday afternoon, posted on french PSS (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=364823#p364823) :

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/6704/photosdfense063.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3488/photosdfense064.jpg
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/6008/photosdfense069.jpghttp://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7605/photosdfense071.jpg

I'm sure Jex is fluent in english by the way; just saying...
Get your shy butt over here Jex. :whip:
:) Kidding, still he'd be welcome on SSP as well, wouldn't he?

Okay, this is the schedule according to well-informed defense-92.fr :


Demolition of the Veritas building shown above from june to september 2011.
Work on the foundations from october 2011 to february 2012.
Construction of the infrastructure from february to late 2012.
Construction of the superstructure from november 2012 to late 2013.
Completion is expected by september 2014.


Can't wait. We saw someone saying it looked pretty similar to iconic Swiss Re nicknamed Gherkin or Cucumber in London. Kind of but then this one D2 should be a better Cucumber and I beg the Brits for not beating me here :D
Here's an additional render from above and taken from defense-92.fr, helping to figure :

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/d2plana.jpg

We'll be following that.

[mousquet]

Demolition's done, guess the foundation work is starting.

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/ph30159.JPG

More pictures... (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

[colemonkee]

Man, La-Defense is on a tear.

[futuresooner]

London's Gherkin meets NYC's Hearst Tower

[sphinx88844]

We should start a new thread in the "highrise construction" now that this thing is finally getting built!

C'est l'heure pour Paris d'avoir un autre gratte-ciel exquis! :dancing:

[mousquet]

Thanks a lot for the support. We must admit that the forum rule is rather wise though, let's wait for some significant foundations to move it in the U/C section, it's just a matter of weeks. For now it looks like they still have a bit of rubble to clear away and they started some kind of excavation indeed.

Let me also quickly mention Air² in this thread. There's no dedicated thread on SSP but the project has been managed quietly anyway. I mean even the French forum had no news about it for long. Now we're expecting its implementation to start in the coming weeks BUT it'll take a long time before actual construction begins because first they have to demolish this:

http://www.pss-archi.eu/immeubles/FR-92026-48.html

That's 360-ft tall and closely surrounded which makes a fast demolition impossible. They talk about a "déconstruction" and say it'll take 16 months... :oldlady slow
This is it (roughly 660-ft tall) stuck to D2 (560 ft):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Grf.jpg

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/renduaire2a.jpg

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/air2diapoesplanadeod6.jpg

Shape seen from above:

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/aire2plan3.jpg

Design: Arquitectonica
Investor: Carlyle Group (based in NYC, they've been working with developer Bouygues Immobilier for this project)
Use: office
Surface area: 82,000 m² (roughly 883,000 sq ft)

[colemonkee]

I was wondering what that other tower was in the D2 renders. That's some serious density going on right there.

[mousquet]

A bunch of more machines just got on the site.

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8836/d25q.jpg

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/1091/d26.jpg

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/6550/d23p.jpg

http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/1770/d22p.jpg

Thanks to morgandoug (http://imageshack.us/homepage/?user=morgandoug) for these.

This is a picture of what was going on a week ago, they had begun some sort of foundation but it's no longer visible.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5230/sdc12380u.jpg

Thanks to Maza (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=384255#p384255).

[mousquet]

4 days ago, foundation on progress...

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8472/015we.jpg

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/9725/011rxk.jpg

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8716/016fl.jpg

Jexmen's uptade on French pss-archi.eu (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=392463#p392463).

The overall foundation is expected to be done in late february, then a couple of cranes will be set up on the site. So far things have been happening about as mentioned there:


Demolition of the Veritas building shown above from june to september 2011.
Work on the foundations from october 2011 to february 2012.
Construction of the infrastructure from february to late 2012.
Construction of the superstructure from november 2012 to late 2013.
Completion is expected by september 2014.


It looks like this thread can be safely moved to Highrise Construction now. If you guys agree and although the French conventions would rather say 37 floors because they never take the ground floor in count, please change the title to:

PARIS - LA DEFENSE | D2 | 561 FT / 171 M | 38 floors

As far as we all forumers know, it's the most accurate.

[Fabb]

Good news !
But I guess that it's going to be invisible from the esplanade.

[mousquet]

^ Never mind the esplanade here. This is part of the plan to improve the north side of the ring boulevard, which is highly exciting.

A couple of days ago:
http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/1923/49543277.jpg

Closer.
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1745/10756998.jpg

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9996/93396882.jpg

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4113/59162488.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/695/21995213.jpg

This will bear the workers' sheds across the boulevard.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4639/17387163.jpg
All pictures by morgan (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=396004#p396004).

One more draft.
http://a5.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/64/e2/d0/mzl.bqpkhegj.480x480-75.jpg

http://a3.mzstatic.com/us/r1000/072/Purple/d6/3a/33/mzl.wegvdyio.320x480-75.jpg

http://a1.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple/76/53/fc/mzl.qcdhfmxz.480x480-75.jpg

[colemonkee]

From the pictures it's hard to tell where the footprint of the actual tower is, but this thing looks to be very close to if not already under construction. mousquet, if you can point out where in any of the above pictures are piles for the foundation of the tower, I'll move this to the Under Construction sub forum.

[mousquet]

^ Sorry, I'm unable to do so. We can figure what should be the foundations of the fishnet on a couple of pictures but I can't see anything related to the actual structure either. You're right, there's no hurry anyway. The next update will be the proper one.

[AJphx]

In the first rendering at the top, the diamonds appear to be much larger than in some of the renderings further down. Is there a difference, or just perspective?

[mousquet]

@AJphx Right, the fishnet looks a little different from a render to another. I can't tell which version is the most accurate.

@colemonkee In fact, I've been confused since they talked about diaphragm walls on the French forum. Those things are clearly foundations but I don't know what for, probably the structure itself.
Diaphragm walls are part of what this red hydrofraise has been doing for 3 months:

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5172/d28s.jpg

I think that's what they were doing on this picture.

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/5230/sdc12380u.jpg

They also did some strips using the hydrofraise. In my own words, for the past 3 months they've dug holes all around that they had to plug to let their machines easily move on the site. Just to let you know about those diaphragm wall and strip things.

Now a couple of more pictures taken by Maza (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=396299#p396299) yesterday.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2720/dscf0529x.jpg

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1813/dscf0530d.jpg

The hydrofraise is still on the site so I'm guessing the foundations are not totally done yet.
More sheds for workers to come.

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/3647/dscf0531bis.jpg

[mousquet]

The hydrofraise is gone...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/6785291816_9e02b5297c_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7196/6785294358_a2edb9874d_z.jpg

Guessing Milo (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=396743#p396743)'s right, that thing there looks like the foot of a crane.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/6931410919_25166406ff_z.jpg

Although I know nothing of foundation technologies, I have a feeling that something's still missing in there. But their strips and diaphragm wall must be done.

[mousquet]

Sample of the facade:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/6972246539_ba0d43e9e0_z.jpg
pss-archi member JP (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=398876#p398876)
:irked: They're really in love with that kind of spandrel over here, that ends up being very annoying. You can see about the same on all the latest facades that somewhat disappointed me and many others around here. Hopefully that darker spandrel glass will be better than what we've seen lately.
Notice the glass frame to the left which is different, same light grey as the fishnet instead of black, must be a try. BTW doesn't that fishnet look like plastic? I expected something more metallic... Pssst :irked::irked:

A crane would be coming this week. Yesterday:
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/2457/d23np.jpg
morgan (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=398965#p398965)
They're still focusing on that spot stuck to the boulevard.

[Fabb]

La Défense seems to have no urban planning at all. Only improvised schemes on a small scale.
It's as if every new addition was hastily devised so as to compensate for the permanent shortage of modern commercial space.
The lack of grand gesture is the sign of a fragile imbalance between premature decrepitude and rejuvanation.

[mousquet]

^ You think it's that bad? Yet EPADESA has hired some planners and as we see, the treatment of the ring boulevard is changing a lot. I have a feeling there's actually some improvement in the district planning, I would just complain about materials used for this building, Carpe Diem, and First and T1 before them. All this looks kinda tacky, old-fashioned or whatever boring to me.
Regarding the premature decrepitude, I guess it's due to much of the 60s-70s architecture that's just crap. Not only there in la Défense. Certainly not even only in the country, in many cases, it didn't age well which explains the current renovations/demolitions around there.

[Fabb]

^ You think it's that bad? Yet EPADESA has hired some planners and as we see, the treatment of the ring boulevard is changing a lot.

It's not that bad.
But D2 suffers from a bad location and a too small scale.
With such a nice design, something good could have been achieved, in terms of image and planning.

[mousquet]

I take this design as a tribute to Foster's 30 St Mary Axe which is a great building when D2 appears hardly random to me, now that I'm seeing what its facade would be made of. I hope being wrong, though.

Of course, we all agree that the district badly needs a strong symbol to appeal a real interest at last. The Grande Arche has been a complete failure in that respect. We need Phare. Hermitage is cool for bringing the mixed-use concept in a shiny manner, but I ended up thinking Phare would actually be the most significant architectural achievement. Phare is odd with a €900 million budget, which makes it possibly great.

[mousquet]

Here we go (again)...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6836353636_b346953c23_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7052/6836344318_1a3ca678a3_o.jpg

Another chance to the glass...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7178/6982471749_319ba4569b_o.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7195/6836345536_1eef8b7d6c_o.jpg

Black frame will do better in my opinion. Thanks to Milo & bnmaddict (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=399400#p399400).

[Fabb]

I take this design as a tribute to Foster's 30 St Mary Axe which is a great building when D2 appears hardly random to me, now that I'm seeing what its facade would be made of. I hope being wrong, though.


The reference to 30 St Mary Axe seems obvious when you look at the renderings, but the finished product may end up being quite different. Both buildings play on the theme of jewelry... with a serious risk of tackiness.

We'll see.

[mousquet]

April 14.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/8388/d23r.jpg http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2389/d24vr.jpg

By morgan (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=403014#p403014).

[mousquet]

May 29

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/ph47123.JPG

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/ph47096.JPG

defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

[colemonkee]

Looks like this one's fully underway, so I moved it to the construction subforum.

[babou95]

it' s a beautiful building but we will can't see it when the Hermitage Plaza will be built and the EPAD should destroy the Aurora tower because it's the most horrible tower of La défense with Coeur Defense

[Minato Ku]

The tower is growing.
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d107/Vincentthomas/Album%205/DSC44889a.jpg

[lake of the nations]

A new video of this project has been released.

http://videos.bouygues-immobilier.com/video/8a6c4fee1a1s.html

[mousquet]

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/ph58118.JPG
defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

[Austinlee]

Jesus, Paris & London; Do you guys have to copy off of each other so much?? Just fuck and get it over with. Meet up for a nice wine & baguette and stick your Gherkin in your Arc de Triomphe.



With that said.... Nice design!

[mousquet]

:) Hm!... Yea. Let's call it a humble tribute to Sir Foster and London's City.
:haha:

[mousquet]

This one would be widely made of steel, it will be the 1st time I see that in France where reinforced concrete structures rule.
They're still preparing the formwork of the core for now.

EDIT: removing hotlinks to pss-archi.eu

[colemonkee]

That temporary steel structure for staging materials that spans the street is quite impressive. I've never seen that before. Interesting solution to the issue of building a high-rise in a tight spot.

[mousquet]

The large looking core's starting to go up.

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/ph68285.JPG
defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

Nice fact I wasn't aware of by the way, there would be a 400 m² (4300 ft²) café-restaurant on the 1st floor (street level). A little commitment in making the feet of towers friendlier and something more urban of the ring boulevard, along with the 310 m² (3300 ft²) of retail space (another restaurant I think) on Carpe Diem's first floor a few hundred yards away along the boulevard.

[Design-mind]

The fishnet is very similar to the that on the "Bow building" in Calgary, Canada, which is a Foster and Partners building.

[mousquet]

^ Right. This one should just be much thicker, it very much appears "en relief" (sorry, I forget the proper English term but you guys should understand) over the glass. Apart from that, it looks pretty much the same indeed.

[babou95]

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/ph71366.JPG

A new image of the construction

[Minato Ku]

This concentration of skycraper become quite high in the area with this tower, I think that the circular north boulevard has the densest concentration of skycraper in Europe
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d107/Vincentthomas/Album%205/DSC52440b.jpg

[mousquet]

This concentration of skycraper become quite high in the area with this tower, I think that the circular north boulevard has the densest concentration of skycraper in Europe

It is kind of what's getting closer to a huge canyon on the continent., I agree.
BTW, I sometimes wonder, do you know what that empty lot is near Prisma, facing D2 across the boulevard? Why in this town isn't there anything planned right there yet? That's a lovely lot, isn't it?

[Robertpuant]

Nice to see skyscrapers going up in Paris! The designs always seem very thoughtful. Keep us updated!

[mousquet]

That temporary steel structure for staging materials that spans the street is quite impressive.
No matter how skilled crane operators may be, I'm assuming they've got to be assisted by some kind of system in their machines to make it safe:

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/DSC_3272.JPG
defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

That's a cool construction site.

[Minato Ku]

Today
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d107/Vincentthomas/Album%205/DSC54388b.jpg

[mousquet]

Bit of glass.

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/DSC_5774.JPG
defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

[Design-mind]

The cladding covering the I-beams is a lot more reflective than the renderings eluded to. I think this will look great with the light blue glazing.

[mousquet]

^ :( No, it's covered by something matt with a light grey color. I would've liked some pure chrome effect much better as well, I think.
You can see, the beams to the couple of first floors are actually not done yet. Those right above are the final thing.

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/PH1_8403.JPG
defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

[Design-mind]

^ :( No, it's covered by something matt with a light grey color. I would've liked some pure chrome effect much better as well, I think.
You can see, the beams to the couple of first floors are actually not done yet. Those right above are the final thing.

Bummer I really thought it was going to have the chrome look. The glass looks more transparent in this picture as well.

[colemonkee]

The glass on this is superb.

[mousquet]

Yea, that's a fair transparency. :) Even some kind of symbol in a corrupted land. Nothing to hide...

[mousquet]

Feeling blind for having criticized this, because I find it's turning nice indeed. Better to be wrong sometimes, anyways.

http://www.defense-92.fr/photos/PH1_9536.JPG
defense-92.fr (http://www.defense-92.fr/d2lesphotos.html)

[mousquet]

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3716/9167613386_dd58908f8f_o.jpg

Watch the improving portion of the ring boulevard, there will be something along there.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3699/9165381549_20d24566f8_o.jpg

Yet too many offices lacking housing and retail, but I'll be damned if that boulevard connected to the sometime soon rearranged slab doesn't become a urban legend. Remember you're just a couple of miles away from the historic center right there. Heck, I'm all excited like a kid at the potential of this thing.

Pictures by Piéton (RS-steph35 on here I think) for pss-archi (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=450083#p450083).

[colemonkee]

Probably one of my favorite towers going up in Paris right now. The cladding materials are some of the best I've seen.

[mousquet]

Yeah, it's lovely. There should be some nice glints owing to the angled panels, like seen below.

http://uppix.net/bhijPj.jpg
Densaga (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=449982#p449982)

Like Carpe Diem does on it's 2 better sides, except this D2 is fitted with a much much better glass.

[Robertpuant]

Wow, this building looks costly! I'm very impressed with what I see so far!

[mousquet]

No idea about how much it costs. I wouldn't mind if it was cheap, actually.

[sphinx88844]

wow - very cool! But there are zero people....

[Yorkie]

Eye catching.......it's got the WOW factor..:stunned: :eek::ohyeah::eek:

[Minato Ku]

D2 tower from Argenteuil

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3698/9477652281_ee9dfac941_c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52122610@N03/9477652281/)
La Défense (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52122610@N03/9477652281/) par Grego95100 (http://www.flickr.com/people/52122610@N03/), sur Flickr

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5546/9480464308_3827f5d466_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52122610@N03/9480464308/)
087 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/52122610@N03/9480464308/) par Grego95100 (http://www.flickr.com/people/52122610@N03/), sur Flickr

[Minato Ku]

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5343/9522990149_ef2d18d5bd_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9522990149/)
La Défense - chantier D2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9522990149/) par -pieton- (http://www.flickr.com/people/pieton/), sur Flickr

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3710/9522990913_b63b8ca25b_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9522990913/)
La Défense - chantier D2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9522990913/) par -pieton- (http://www.flickr.com/people/pieton/), sur Flickr

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/9525774108_155451a368_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9525774108/)
La Défense - chantier D2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9525774108/) par -pieton- (http://www.flickr.com/people/pieton/), sur Flickr

[Minato Ku]

With a big view of the skyline;
A hole in the skyline is disappearing

http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5463/9534537406_72a5e122e8_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9534537406/)
La Défense Skyline (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pieton/9534537406/) par -pieton- (http://www.flickr.com/people/pieton/), sur Flickr

[mousquet]

So now they put chips within concrete... Gather round, I took the time to translate for geeks on here, although being unfamiliar with some technical terms in there.


The D2 tower believes in concrete 2.0

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_160717_p1120183.jpg

The site of the D2 tower is moving fast: first high-rise building with metallic exoskeleton and concrete core in the district of la Défense, it is a testing ground for several innovative technologies as well. Self-consolidating (or self-compacting) concrete (SCC) in use to implement the core embed some RFID (radio frequency identification) chips to provide some data helpful to material traceability.

The D2 tower, erected on the site of the former Bureau Veritas building (now demolished) at la Défense is an odd project in more ways than one. This 171-meter (561 ft) tall office tower is the first one of the business district to take up a mixed structure made of a steel exoskeleton and a reinforced concrete inner core. "The D2 tower will be provided with a terraced garden (at the top) and some light animation on the facade at night", states GTM Bâtiment deputy project manager Philippe Rouchette. The rounded shape of the building cladded with diamond mesh brings "a geometric complexity to the nodes of the facade", he says. The design requires glass and coating to be put up at a pace of 3 floors, which the progress of the whole construction work shows: "the core is ahead by roughly 3 floors of the steel skeleton, which itself is ahead of the facade by the same", says Philippe Rouchette.

"The 6,500 m³ (literally 1,429,797.2 gal, I guess) foundation raft was carried out to a thickness of 3 m (around 10 ft for sure) in ready-mixed SCC to improve the work conditions, reduce noise pollution and speed up implementation", Rouchette explains. According to him, the rate of that implementation would be of 80 m³ per hour and per pump instead of 25 m³ for a more regular method with vibrators (17,600 gal instead of 5,500). "There was simply no vibrator at all on the site! SCC was used for the raft, for vertical walls of which the thickness goes up to 2 m (~6.5 ft) and for pillars." They had to choose some new options due to the dimensions of the structure, like the implementation of the core with SCC within a self-climbing formwork. And innovations won't stop there: concrete is "traced" (literal translation) in order to make a "connected" building of the tower.

RFID chips as DNA carriers of the structure
Thus, RFID chips were embedded in the concrete mix of Lafarge's plant in Nanterre. A method allowing an undeniable identification of fresh then hardened concrete, within its bulk, to ensure the kind of it, hence its quality and its location in the structure. "Permanent traceability for casted concrete allows to watch the material quality, including standards for environmental certifications, for it is possible to append some metadata", argues Philippe Rouchette. "There are increasing requirements for traceability in construction", adds Pascal Marpeau, the marketing manager of Lafarge's industry department who raises computerization and fast access to data as reasons. Passive chips, of just a centimeter or so (half an inch) in diameter are encapsulated within a plastic shell to resist environmental constraints (pH, temperature, mechanical constraints and so on). A specific reader transmits radio frequency (RF) turning chips on in a short distance (15-20 cm) by supplying them with power. Then in return, it identifies every chip provided with a unique serial number which all needed data match with: delivery number, concrete plant id, concrete trade name, production date and time... Around 2 chips are introduced into the mixer for each cubic meter of concrete, so that the distribution in cast is homogeneous. "The amount of chips is a function of the dimensions of a structure and the number of detections per square meter that a customer wish", Lafarge specifies. As for collecting data, a reader may be set to the chute of a mixer truck to make sure proper concrete is casted on the right spot, whilst a portable reader may be used to collect data from hardened concrete.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_160841_p1120229.jpg

Endless possibilities
Therefore this new technology allows to quickly collect some data about concrete by a non-destructive way, moreover to unlimited storage, during the entire lifetime of a building. In 2014, more data might even be added: volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions, origin of a material, proportion of recycled materials, environmental and health specifications (something of the French administration), carbon footprint, records of post-delivery quality control... Possibilities are endless. Interesting to the cement company (Lafarge) that's planning data collecting and storage new services to watch what would be the DNA of the structure, up to the time of deconstruction and waste treatment. Given the rapid progress of technologies, snapshots of an entire structure with geolocation of each chip are conceivable within a relatively close future. Enough to interest many stakeholders: construction companies, building owners, real estate managers, insurances... Construction is thus witnessing, in turn, a digital revolution.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_161116_p1120248.jpg

Diamond mesh
The weaving of the metallic mesh that wraps up D2 draws some diamond pattern sticking to the curves of the building. Each half of a diamond (so that's an isosceles triangle indeed) is 3-story tall. The facade is gradually adorning itself with glass and protective coating thanks to specific tools and some well planned logistics.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_161435_p1120187.jpg

Exoskeletal structure
The steel framework weighs 5300 tons, including the 2000 tons of the exoskeleton drawing the diamond (or X) mesh. Above seen in close up, fitted with its protective coating.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_161708_p1120185.jpg

IGH (immeuble de grande hauteur, that just means high-rise building)
D2 will be topped out at 171 m. Exclusively for office purpose, it will host 3750 people over 38 floors (French: R+37).

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_162745_p1120236.jpg

Inner core
Overview of the concrete inner core containing elevator shafts, staircases and technical rooms, which frees up all the surrounding space on floors.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_162927_p1120193.jpg

Steel and concrete mixed structure
Mixed floors are supported by steel joists.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_163302_p1120202.jpg

Reading RFID chips
A portable reader lets one scan the ids of RFID chips drowned in the concrete bulk of vertical walls. Once an id collected, it leads to the matching data like origin of concrete, concrete type and traits, date and time of production and so on.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20130909_163600_p1120224.jpg

RFID chips
Chips are 1.2 cm in diameter and don't affect the traits of concrete that embed them. Around 4 chips per batch are necessary to ensure reading afterwards. Reinforcement increases interference.

http://www.batiactu.com/images/normal/20120703_173359_tof7.jpg

Foundation
D2 sits upon the Alsace technical gallery serving the district of la Défense, especially for steam. That required the implementation of 86 deep foundation strips (23 m, 75 ft deep) on either side of the gallery and of concrete structures that span it.

Complete
D2 will be complete by mid-2014. It will be crowned with a 30 m tall steel structure that will contain some technical rooms and a terraced garden (non-accessible).

French original: http://www.batiactu.com/edito/la-tour-d2-croit-au-beton-20-36035.php

Okayyy... The building is tall but obviously nothing exceptional regarding the size of the structure, so I'm wondering what actually prompted them to use their SCC jointly to their self-climbing formwork, if that's even anything new. There's one sure thing, high-rise structures mixing steel and concrete are very unusual over here, it's the first one I see. So far, it had mostly (if not always) been full concrete structures. Notice that reinforced concrete, which France is seemingly deeply in love with, was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier. Besides, the tower is really closely surrounded as the area is now quite dense.

Now Lafarge is of the typical kind of friendly companies to me: jobs in France performing good results and innovative stuff indeed in their business.

Finally, notice they coated steel joists with something on every floor. Except for the exoskeleton, the entire steel structure is coated in that thing. I know neither why nor what that is. Maybe for local safety standards, but that's only my guess.

[mousquet]

Almost topped out...

https://picyoo.com/Files/OTAQ-ZB8E-ZCDP-4RXA/1377248409/p1899f56s5b1e1nmu1bum5t26cl5.jpg
Picture by Milo.

[Tectonic]

Nice, I'm a sucker for X bracing/diamonds.

[hughesnick312]

Self rising cores are cool, but there not new, we've been using them for a few years in New York and London. I like this tower, but it looks like a blatant copy of the gherkin tower (30 st Mary's axe) in London, the shape and even the diamond facade is an exact copy, but the gherkin has better cladding to me

[Martin Mtl]

Amazing tower.

[mousquet]

Self rising cores are cool, but there not new, we've been using them for a few years in New York and London.
Uh, same over here, I believe. They were talking about the traits of concrete in use, if I'm not mistaking. And yes, it's seemingly widely inspired by the London gherkin. Meh...
For once that London finally inspires something to Paris, you should be glad, don't you think?

[mousquet]

By piéton.

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From the other side.

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That segment of the boulevard is as unfriendly as what you see for now, and I hope it goes on like this for long, the time for it to become a glory.

[mousquet]

Yesterday by Vincent92000 on pss-archi (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=468235#p468235):

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3679/12253778375_0561723e79_b.jpg

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Thanks to Vincent for these.

[mousquet]

Pss-archi member Vincent (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=469249#p469249) went up to the top of Majunga that's not even complete yet and took these showing D2 undergoing the work on it's cap.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7413/12479282204_167010bd0f_b.jpg

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Simply the best possible view to check that work out.

[Minato Ku]

Yes, a really great view.
I wanted to take picture from Puteaux today but the rain deterred me.
I hate the weather these days, a blue sky and few minutes latter a rainstorm.

[Urbannizer]

Why was this thread closed?

Updates, 3/7

By Indy G :

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By Vincent1746 :

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[Minato Ku]

Today

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d107/Vincentthomas/Photo%206/DSC82061b.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d107/Vincentthomas/Photo%206/DSC82066b.jpg

[mousquet]

Ah yea, you guys may be curious about D2's top completion, though.
So Vincent had a little walk under la Défense's grey sky yesterday and posted these on pss-archi.eu (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=477240#p477240).

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2926/14094977015_ee9c915685_b.jpg

That CGI logo is insanely tacky at the top of their smaller green tower that yet looks cool, but Bouygues and Sogeprom won't leave theirs to the top of D2, huh. That's just some temporary advertising.

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Below, they're putting up the little LED lamps to the façade that should nicely dress the tower up with glitter at night.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7423/14094959875_b879e352a5_b.jpg

And, we're still waiting for Aurore to the left to be demolished to make way to Air²... :irked: Dang, it's been slow.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7448/14095415194_f7f5949a8a_b.jpg

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Hé! :D Guys, beware of that boulevard. For more towers are planned along, and my guess is it's finally going to be a formidable deep canyon to embody our local wealth and economic strength in a more contemporary and bigger fashion, in addition to what the historic central city has to offer.
Right there is some kind of USA-like way, right?

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2931/13908329629_da1b593245_b.jpg

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Only, locals still have to really appropriate that kind of bigger stuff. The fact that most tower feet are completely closed to the few pedestrians going there is still showing.

Many thanks to Vincent again. :tup:

[mousquet]

The top is weird, some sort of sloppy design.

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/320262IMG7708.jpg
ludoboy

There's a little garden as initially planned up there, though.

http://www.leparisien.fr/images/2014/06/24/3949347_c36f9316-fba6-11e3-96d9-001517810e22-12.jpg

http://www.leparisien.fr/images/2014/06/24/3949347_ca9485b6-fba6-11e3-96d9-001517810e22-15.jpg

http://www.leparisien.fr/images/2014/06/24/3949347_a8be7a5a-fba6-11e3-96d9-001517810e22-1.jpg

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http://www.leparisien.fr/images/2014/06/24/3949347_c84a8382-fba6-11e3-96d9-001517810e22-10.jpg

More pictures like some interiors and views on leparisien.fr (http://www.leparisien.fr/hauts-de-seine-92/en-images-tour-d2-a-la-defense-un-jardin-a-170-metres-de-haut-24-06-2014-3949347.php?pic=9#infoBulles1).

From farther away.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3861/14593330083_019e645c82_b.jpg
vincent1746

Hé, the river is cleaner and cleaner, that allowed a whole bunch of species of fish to come back and live there yet. You might even be allowed to swim in there sometime kind of soon, without having to undergo half a dozen of vaccines. But maybe not on that very spot, eh.

[mousquet]

From Eqho's 25th floor.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3892/15354308545_0e07416a1f_b.jpg

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From Carpe Diem's 36th.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3846/15351148491_30174493cb_b.jpg

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Pictures by Vincent (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=492870#p492870).

Below by jaimeleraï (http://www.pss-archi.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=492920#p492920).

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/21410020140924121835.jpg

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/76396720140924122324.jpg

[Design-mind]

The building looks awesome. Great updates! Are the gardens at the top public?

[mousquet]

^ Unfortunately, no. It should be open to the employees of the tenants exclusively, and maybe not even all of them. :shrug: It sucks. There's that kind of sorry, distrustful and paranoid trend to make some sort of fortress of every building over here, whether offices or residential.

However, some commercial/retail room is planned at the foot of the tower, as well as in Carpe Diem and in Saint-Gobain. A first step to make towers feel more friendly and more open to the general public locally, also necessary to improve the boulevard.

[Design-mind]

^ Unfortunately, no. It should be open to the employees of the tenants exclusively, and maybe not even all of them. :shrug: It sucks. There's that kind of sorry, distrustful and paranoid trend to make some sort of fortress of every building over here, whether offices or residential.

However, some commercial/retail room is planned at the foot of the tower, as well as in Carpe Diem and in Saint-Gobain. A first step to make towers feel more friendly and more open to the general public locally, also necessary to improve the boulevard.

That is unfortunate as it would have made for a great vantage point.:(

[Urbannizer]

Completed: 2/4 from SSC.

Today :

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