111
EUROPA
Axonometric projections of the metallic structures of the lantern’s floors, 2012.
contributes to the prioritisation of the composition in accordancewith a threefold
organisation , i.e., the spaces immediately adjoining the listed façades of the
Résidence Palace
; the closing of the site thanks to the patchwork façades and in
balance near the middle of the atrium, a tower consolidating the main functions.
The programme of the conference rooms suggests decks of various sizes, re-
sulting in a variable profile depending on the floor, i.e., the design of the lantern
illustrates and synthesises the stacking up of functions.
In addition to the rooms for conferences or ceremonies, outside the lantern and
on the atrium’s western side, placed above a bridge structure (large Vierendeel
trusses) that straddles the roof over the underground works, one or two confer-
ence rooms are added in parallel per floor, with 36 to 50 seats each, spanning
two levels. It is from these rooms, as is obvious, that the best views will be had of
the lantern’s shapes, either grazing views or top-down views.
The horizontal and cross sections of the project, representing the superimposed
rooms, vaguely remind us of a tower of Babel, albeit without its confusion. The
space taken up by the interpreters, arranged like a crown around each of the
rooms, testifies to the extravagant linguistic constraint Europe applies to itself
and to the energy it devotes to the mutual understanding of all its members: Ba-
bel, this time, will not be scattered or ruined. Its lantern tower, firmly secured to
the ground, seems to augur a multilingual Europe at peace, which, thanks to di-
plomacy and democratic tension, will have managed to give, neither triumphant
nor humiliated shape to its cosmopolitical ideal. The building is devoted to
summits by heads of state and government, but with them and accompanying
them, to the countless work meetings and negotiations, which form the frame-
work and the chain of a perpetually redistributed responsibility and of a rotating
national presidency. The capacity of these rooms measures their role if not their
authority: each will convene more personalities than a cenacle or committee,
but fewer than a parliament.
The floor plans show a succession of ellipses. The lantern is positioned consid-
erably off-centre within the atrium. The lengthwise stretch of each of its decks,
ellipses with increasing and then decreasing dimensions, creates, as seen from
the ground, an asymmetric visual effect, which nonetheless remains the product
of a strict and symmetric structure. The centres are superimposed and their ma-
jor and minor axes are placed on the same vertical sections. The three confer-
ence rooms respectively organise three double levels, the largest one positioned
in the widest space in this large glass body. The layout over two floors of each
of the main rooms has the advantage to stack the interpreter booths. This layout
improves conviviality and visual dialogue between participants and their transla-
tors. The rooms are closely connected to the nearby offices, spread out over the
internal sides of the
Résidence Palace
, even if they can be isolated for security
reasons, if required.
GLASS ELLIPSES
