La Samaritaine, once the largest department store in Paris, has been completely renovated. The aim of the conversion and extension work was to create a mixed-use hotel, office and residential space, as well as a significantly smaller department store. For the new department store building, the Japanese architecture duo SA-NAA developed an undulating glass façade that runs in front of the thermal façade at a distance of half a metre to one-and-a-half metres. The individual curved glass panels are attached to the thermal façade at only four points by means of support arms, which are made of laser-welded stainless steel profiles. The ground floor is accessed via eleven double-leaf, 3.30-met-re tall swing doors in the undulating glass façade. Jansen developed all of the 22 leaves in close collaboration with Frener & Reifer based on the Janisol 2 EI 30 steel profile system as fire-resistant swing doors. Despite their enormous size, the extra-high leaves operate extremely smoothly and can be opened with minimal effort.

Source: Profile magazine, issue 26

Download the profile 26 here (pdf, 8,4 MB)