B&B Porte des Lilas
25 maart 2020
The Porte des Lilas is where privileged Paris quartiers merge with the less affluent suburbs of the city. Set around the Parisian inner ring road, this central hub is developing rapidly and new architectural projects are offering Les Lilas new prospects and perspectives. Two French export successes, namely the B&B hotel chain who commissioned the building and the star architect Dominique Perrault, have joined forces in one hotel project. Perrault’s façade, made of ALUCOBOND® spectra, provides a shimmering contrast to the other graffiti sprayed façades and the large-scale housing projects in these suburbs. It is just as colourful, but far more glamourous and sophisticated. Depending on the viewer’s angle of vision, the iridescent shimmer changes colour, sometimes a soft pink, sometimes lilac, sometimes green. Since the hotel comprises two towers set at an angle to each other, you can see different refractions of light from just one viewpoint. And drivers passing by along the ring road experience a soft, fleeting splash of colour.
Guests on brief city or business trips, visitors to trade fairs and people just passing through usually stay only a few nights at the hotel and need a clear head for the busy days ahead. This is why the hotel interior looks light, functional and understated. The design of the foyer area and the rooms focusses on daylight, a low-key black and white colour palette and wood to create Nordic lightness and clarity. The fact that the overall effect is in no way dull and has a very cheering effect is somehow very French. Numerous filigree details, colours and materials applied in playful highlights: some colourful curtains here, a sound-proofing screen there. Tinted glass here, wall cladding in graphic patterns there. If you look out on either side of the hotel, you can see the old Paris and the new, the centre and the suburbs, and you notice that not only the hotel but also the whole diverse and colourful city deserves to be closely observed and viewed from many perspectives.
Project: B&B Porte des Lilas, Paris | France
Architect: Dominique Perrault Architecture, Paris | France
Fabricator: GCEB, Saint-Germain-lès-Corbeil | France
Installer: Acodi, Torvilliers | France
Façade System: Tray Panels on bolts
Year of Construction: 2014
Product: ALUCOBOND® spectra Sakura
Photos: Manuel Panaget + Andre Morin