Co-contractor architect Vivien Gimenez Architecture
Orange’s head office is located on the Pompignane Campus in Montpellier, home to many new technology companies, including IBM.
When IBM set up its plant in Montpellier in 1965, it reproduced the American campus model, with each building integrated into a vast 28-hectare park planted with trees.
In 2004, Covivio bought the park with the ambition of making it the tertiary site for the region’s technology companies; the arrival of Orange’s headquarters reinforced this strategy.
The demolition of some of the warehouses amplified the landscape, which features olive trees, cypresses, vines, umbrella pines and many other Mediterranean species.
This strong plant presence, combined with Montpellier’s particular climate, led the project to search for a Mediterranean quality: an intangible link that would unite the exterior and interior in a spatial continuum.
All floors benefit from linear balconies and large outdoor terraces, shaded and planted with trees and shrubs, providing ideal places to socialize and work.
The two lateral branches of the building are joined by a monumental, transparent hall on the first floor, crowned by a terrace-pergola that closes the figure around a central garden.
In this case, socializing means acclimatizing to a site and blending into its ecosystem – plant, immaterial and human at the same time.
Photographie : Sergio Grazia
