Icade Parcs d’Affaires–Grand Paris by Saguez & Partners: 2019 Best of Year Winner for Outdoor

With this striking project, thousands of French workers may no longer eat lunch at their desks. At least, that’s the hope of firm founder Olivier Saguez. Icade Parcs d’Affaires–Grand Paris, what he calls a “city square” now occupies part of the 150-acre Paris-Orly-Rungis Icade Park, a former industrial swath in the city’s southern suburbs that’s been transformed into a business campus accommodating more than 200 companies and some 16,000 employees.

Saguez and his team, working with CV2A Architectures, conceived an environment and graphic design articulated around three large squares—a plan encompassing 630,000 square feet and including daily services, places of connection, physicality, and relaxation. “After the office city, the business park becomes a real city within the city,” he notes. Among the recreational options is a 820-foot exercise track surrounding ping-pong tables and pétanque courts, its amber all-weather surfacing embellished with crisp white lines and dots.

But athletics aren’t the only activities on offer. A vibrant food kiosk anchors a patio devoted to alfresco dining, spotted with pergolas and picnic tables, and shipping containers patterned in orange and green house pop-up shops.

Project Team: Saguez & Partners: Virginie Parisot; Michael Bezou; Etienne Bauchet; Laurent Brudner; Isabelle Duffieux; Marika Saarinen; Amaud Laly. CV2A Architectures: Sandra De Jesus; Fanny Rouzies.

> See more from the December/January 2020 issue of Interior Design