The new Paris headquarters of the French daily newspaper Le Monde, which was officially opened on 16 December, contains 1,000 tons of Dillinger heavy plate.
Dillinger steel plate plays a key 'supporting role' in the structure and was produced by Dillinger and Dillinger France.
According to Dillinger, the building is close to the Paris Austerlitz railway station and was originally going to be two buildings, not just one because the site consists of three enormous slabs covering the railway tracks; the middle slab is not suitable for construction.
The structure provides the French capital with a new architectural highlight, claims Dillinger.
To circumvent these building restrictions, the architects decided to use a bridge-like structure to span the property not suited for construction. The result is a true architectural masterpiece: a steelstructure similar to a pedestrian bridge, onto which metal and concrete floors are suspended.
The glass-enclosed bridge in the centre of the seven-storey building is 137 metres long and 37 metres high and combines nature with technology with green spaces as well as LED lights distributed over the entire area, 'like stars moving in the sky'. The façade of the building is covered with a matrix of glass pixels that create various effects – sometimes transparent, sometimes opaque. The roof is equipped with photovoltaic modules and a rainwater collection system.
Steel from Dillinger has also been used in recent years for the elegant Simone de Beauvoir pedestrian bridge and the spectacular Fondation Louis Vuitton museum.
London is now home to another reference project made with steel from Dillinger: the Twentytwo skyscraper that was completed this year. At a height of 278 metres, it is now the tallest building in the City of London and, with its 62 floors, it visually dominates the skyline of the banking district. A total of 3,700 tons heavy plates from Dillinger are contained in the steel skeleton of the gigantic building that is also described as 'vertical city within the city'.