A few days ago, we discovered a brand new luxury hotel in the heart of the Melia La Défense hotel complex.
Designed by Vasconi Architectes, the 4* Meliã Paris La Défense hotel boasts a sharp, modern architectural identity. Designed ex nihilo to fit into the strategic crossroads that is the main entrance to the business district, its size and knife-edge shape distinguish it from the mostly straight-lined office towers on either side of the Esplanade. Playing on contrasting materials, from glass to metal panels, the building’s elegance is enhanced by reflections, transparency and brilliance.
The south face, adjacent to the Parvis, is fluid and curved. A veritable prism of glass, between clear glazing and screen-printed sections, it contains most of the guest rooms. The suites are part of a figurehead whose overhanging, sloping edge energizes the building, projecting it in the direction of Paris. The allure of this crystalline façade rises up while maintaining a play of reflections and exchanges with the Takis basin.
The north face features vertical walls, panoramic elevators and standard rooms, ending at the edge of Boulevard de Neuilly. The rooms at the far end face the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacré Coeur and the City of Light. The
corridor leading to the rooms offers a visual opening at its eastern end, marked by a gap, an architectural caesura that allows natural light into all circulation areas.
This facade, set back from the urban boulevard, creates a low forecourt dedicated to welcoming vehicular customers and groups.
Ambitious La Défense architectural choices
A unique capacity at La Défense…
The 4-star Meliã Paris La Défense hotel offers 369 rooms, including 29 suites. The rooms feature a chromatic palette in keeping with the hotel, based on ivory, white and grey, underlined by a punctuation of red. There is also a play of patterns, an expression of French refinement and sophistication.
On the first floor, The Place lobby/bar extends lengthwise, parallel to the glass façade, which disappears to reveal a second, transparent interior façade. This second, darkly-treated skin provides a backdrop for the lobby activity. It is also enlivened by a series of niches and screens that help to keep the space constantly animated. These niches and screens represent virtual windows onto the city, illustrating the themes of sparkle, shine and reflection. The floor, meanwhile, has been worked from white to black. The variation in material effects and the shimmering metal used in the furniture create a play of contrasts and light.
…Also offering a genuine lifestyle
Restaurant, fitness room… With its diversified offering, the establishment aims to become a multi-faceted place to live, contributing to the multiplication of exchanges and the enrichment of La Défense’s social life. On the 1st floor, the Le Miroir restaurant, facing the Bassin Takis, is open to the south and north façades. It benefits from a generous supply of natural light. Mirrors take advantage of this luminosity to further refine the general theme of light and reflections that forms the hotel’s identity. Iconography featuring aerial views of Paris also illustrates this specific positioning at the tip of La Défense, like an open window on the City of Light.
A hotel solution offering perspectives
… culminating in an original Sky Bar
On the top floor, the Skyline is the hotel’s real attraction. This type of layout, so common in major international metropolises, is lacking in Paris, and was not available at La Défense. The hotel’s privileged location, with its many views directly over Paris, reinforces the bar’s exceptional character. As in the hotel itself, the bar’s specific use of light, reflection and sparkle is in keeping with the architecture of the site and of La Défense in general. The black-and-white interior is organized as a lounge area along the façade, with the bar providing a backdrop that multiplies the space through reflection. With a wide variety of cocktails and tapas, as well as a disc jockey, the Skyline innovates and diversifies the district’s offer.
Strategically located at the main entrance to Europe’s leading business district, in the extension of the historic “Concorde – Étoile – Grande Arche” axis, the 4* Meliã Paris La Défense hotel is a new flagship asset further enhancing the district’s business and tourist appeal.
Thanks to a partnership initiated by VINCI Immobilier, leading operators in the fields of investment, property development, hotel planning and operation were able to implement the hotel’s development. Its delivery today enables
Paris La Défense to reaffirm its capacity to welcome guests of the highest international standards, with a total surface area of 24,000 m2 on 25 levels, totalling 369 rooms and suites.
Now a visual landmark for anyone travelling from central Paris to La Défense, it also offers exceptional views of the whole capital from its highest floors, as the sky bar on the 19th floor invites you to do.
One of the main assets of the 4* Meliã Paris La Défense hotel is that it offers a wide range of services in addition to welcoming both business and leisure guests. This unique combination of activities positions the hotel as a multi-faceted living space in its own right.
a new hotel solution
The hotel was designed ex nihilo, and required considerable development work, making it a model of technical real estate. If today the establishment benefits from optimum inclusion in its immediate environment, it is thanks to a series of technical feats, both in terms of design and construction, that it was possible to erect it in this way.
A complex land base
Located in the commune of Courbevoie (Esplanade de La Défense), the hotel stands on the site of a former ventilation plant for the A14 freeway. The 1,600 m2 site is wedged between the urban boulevard, the Parvis de La Défense and the Iris parking lot exit. This cramped location, which is also highly attractive in terms of visibility, is compounded by heavy daily traffic.
A 25-storey hotel built like a viaduct
On this restricted site in operation, developing the 24,000 m2 of the project required a design capable of spanning the existing structure. VINCI Immobilier’s hotel division therefore imagined a building acting like a bridge, superimposing 2 tunnels, a parking exit and a ventilation shaft from the A14 tunnel.
A worksite focused on safety and environmental exemplarity
To protect the environment and local residents, EPADESA has adopted a “low nuisance” worksite charter, meeting 3 key objectives: noise control, air quality and information for local residents.
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