Aéroville

Aeroville is the third largest commercial center in France, strategically located near Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. This positioning accounts for its low-rise profile and impressive façade, which provides a visual identity that is easily recognizable from airplanes, as well as from the nearby high-speed train and highway.

Photography: © Jean-Phileppe Mesguen

PCA-Stream
Paris, France
2013
Shopping and leisure center, cinema multiplex

Lighting Test Visual Mock-Up: © VS-A. Group

The challenge for this façade was to impart the distinctive touch of luxury retail to a 13,000 m² area while adhering to budget constraints. Our graphic design and lighting team quickly developed a compelling concept: a double-skin glass façade that generates a striking kinetic effect in the evening, complemented by an opaque metal façade that creates dynamic shadows during the day.

Our responsibility was to identify construction solutions, primarily focused on addressing cost concerns. Each component was optimized, and we even designed a bespoke bent steel fixing system to minimize physical constraints on the glass.

Ultimately, the client favored a maintenance approach relying on manual labor over an initial robotics proposal, necessitating a redesign of the façade to ensure all windows were operable—quite a significant change to implement within a tight timeframe.

Exploded Diagram: © VS-A. Group

As a result, we reverted to a more traditional spider joint system, which remains unique in that all fixing points are either hinged or locked.

While the VS-A team typically does not prefer point fixing for glass, it is important to note that, given the spectacular graphic and lighting design of this project, the distinction is hardly noticeable.