Fondation Cartier

The headquarters of the Fondation Cartier in Paris presents itself as a dematerialized work of architecture, completely immersed in the green of the historic garden with its famous Tree of Liberty, a Lebanese cedar planted by Chateaubriand nearly two centuries ago. The building, conceived as a simple glass box supported by a slender steel frame, abuts Boulevard Raspail with an evocative sequence of transparent facades, arranged like parallel screens to define the garden and the nine-floor structure, which comprises a large glazed volume for the exhibition spaces and offices on the upper floors. The immaterial lightness of the architecture repeats itself at the interiors, where the Less furniture pieces, expressly designed by Jean Nouvel for this project and later produced in series by UniFor, create an unprecedented landscape for the contemporary work environment. The simple and functional design of the tables, workstations and containers take form in solid metal structures, defined by simple volumes, clean lines, smooth surfaces and compact footprints.