Viry SA - Construction métalliques

Austerlitz - CDC building

The new office block of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations bank stands on a narrow triangular lot between the Seine and the railway tracks serving Austerlitz station. Its long glazed façade, almost completely smooth, is dressed out at its north end by thin projecting metal strips, which mark the building's seven levels. The complexity of the work becomes apparent in the interior, where the offices open a second façade as it were along a wide space, scanned by full-height vertical panels in solid oak. This 'interior street' is covered by a glass roof that brings daylight into the offices and which folds to the vertical to form a perfectly transparent curtain wall. The frame is hidden by horizontal wind-braces, simple metal stays set directly against the façade.