High Agora

Haute Agora is a study led by architect Jean-Christophe Quinton in collaboration with Bollinger+Grohmann engineers. It explores the potential of large structures to host human activities. The project intertwines and develops more virtuous new technical systems that would use less material, and a study for more diversified space use in high-rise buildings.

This research started a year ago and deals with the resources of architecture and engineering, measure and space, verticality and the potential environments it generates. It results in a geometry with endless possibilities of adaptation, its structure pushing back the traditional building limits. Supported by only 30 centimetre-thick veils of concrete from the ground, Haute Agora rises to 700 meters and saves space.
Using less material, the tower generates new possibilities. To highlight this dimension, the crew invited a hundred of other architects to work around the volumes. Audiacious lifestyles, new manners, new fictional and functional relationships, parks or water treatment process: their ideas showcase the ability of this Haute Agora to reconsider the way high-rise projects are made.
Through sketches, scale models, calculations, as well as a 20 meter-wide document detailing the uses of different floors and experiences of virtual reality, the exhibition offers a complete immersion in the heart of this ambitious, stimulating and collaborative research project.
With this exhibition, the Pavillon de l’Arsenal keeps showcasing research, especially research through projects, to raise prospective questions, and issues within the architectural discourse, that resonate with contemporary stakes.