Capital 8 by Saguez Workstyle: 2017 Best of Year Winner for Extra-Large Office

When the French national electric company’s headquarters was later privatized, it was remodeled to attract the shiny corporate clientele that populates the Golden Triangle, a business district in the Eighth Arrondissement. But that renovation was already looking dated when the real-estate developer Unibail-Rodamco commissioned Olivier Saguez for a polished new identity. So Saguez adjusted the layout of the ground level, which surrounds several courtyards, to improve flow to services such as a 24/7 concierge desk and in-house restaurants. Loungelike coworking spaces are partially enclosed by bright green glass, which can furthermore be programmed to display real-time news, weather, or company information.

Green is his signature color, representing nature as a primary source of inspiration. He even matched shades of green paint to the ferns, moss, and lichen growing in the nearby Parc Monceau. From the gilded details of the park’s majestic gates came the golden yellow of the rugs at the lobby’s two reception desks. “Bringing the outdoors inside is especially important with an enormous complex like this one,” he adds. Its 667,000 square feet cover almost an entire city block.

Upstairs, the marketing suite for prospective tenants resembles an office for an investment bank, law firm, or luxury brand. On the floor, plush carpet sports a curvy, mod pattern that could have come straight from the era when the complex was constructed.

Project Team: Valérie Parenty; Bernard Astor; Marine Castanier; Maxime Iaciancio; Victor Mallez; Pierre-Olivier Pigeot; Anne-Laure Manfredi.

> See more from the December 2017 issue of Interior Design

> See all 2017 Best of Year winners and honorees