The most recent Marriott hotel has just been inaugurated on Avenue de Wagram in Paris. It is built on the site of the former Théâtre de l'Empire that exploded in 2005 after hosting Jacques Martin's Sunday television programs for more than 20 years. The architect Christian de Portzamparc has made a facade composed of six staged glass and aluminium waves. This is an overview of a building designed like a braid, for which CSTB has issued a Technical Experimental Assessment.
The new Müller footbridge was inaugurated in the spring of 2009, after having been closed to traffic. The footbridge connects the centre of Ivry-sur-Seine to the centre of Ivry-Port, two districts separated by 135 metres of SNCF rail track, otherwise uncrossable. To undertake this project, the client, the Ivry Municipal Authority, decided to enlist the aid of experts. These included DVVD, an architectural and engineering consultant, Baudin Châteauneuf for the metal framework and the CSTB. This is how the anticipated success was achieved.
Corinne Vezzoni, an architect from the South of France, refers readily to the landscaped and urban context to describe her work. "How to reveal what is already there? How to reveal what is here and not there?", was how she summed things up at a "Carte blanche" meeting organised by the CSTB and Archinov. Looking back at our talks with an architect whose unambiguous views concerning the environment confirm the work of an essentially Mediterranean flavour.
The Solar Decathlon is an international university architecture competition created in 2002 in the United States by the US Department of Energy. The ENSAG (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Grenoble – Grenoble Higher National School of Architecture) team was selected to make an energy independent prototype house for the Solar Decathlon Europe, which is to be held in Madrid in June 2010. It called upon the skills of CSTB, consulted for its building expertise and particularly economic design and use of solar energy.
