Photos

The cones you can see on the bottom of the frame are little sitting spaces dedicated to private conversations. Another photo shows more of this space in the ws section. Take a look at the columns and read the excerpts below. The wooden element to the left is the amphitheater i described yesterday

"A Building Read Two Ways :

Seen from the outside, the building is thus immediately legible, identifiable : arc, tower, dome, and ''umbilical cord'' above the river, almost signed, logo-typical, like a drawing, an image all the more memorable in that it has no reference, and is yet a non-autonomous object morphologically linked to the site, contextual. Under this sage appearance of simplicity, the building then harbors the complexity inherent to its scale, but also the desire to create an architecture which sets up systems of open relationships, an architecture reflecting democracy, single and composite, in the process of becoming and alive.

A Mesh and Grid Structure

A grid system, handled differently depending on the figures, structures the entire building. Based on the emblematic theme of the column, the post, which poses the classic problem of the relationship of the structure to the surface shells - articulations with the beams, floors, walls, ceilings - the project highlights a circular post whose shafts are hollowed out. Cross-shaped through opposition, it structures the figure of the arc in a regular 9.6 x 9.6 meter meshing, sometimes in the form of a tall column, 50 meters high, sometimes in the form of a quarter circle of variable height when it intersects with the perpendicular walls. This mesh layout changes when it encounters the transparent double glazed facade of the arc, resting on a ladder structure which supports the welded steel tube grid and the glass modules of the exterior partition. Outside, the circular tower is structured by radii calculated from the center, which appear in a huge fan of concrete stems, and a succession of turning planes. On the ellipse side, the radiating structure is calculated on the basis of the dual focus of the geometry. On either side of the ellipse, the imbrication of the two figures generate two crescents which structure the tower and contain the stairways, elevators, technical duct work."

(Excerpts from http://www.parlementeuropeen.net/)