Aurore, Courbevoie [FR]

EeStairs + Jean-Paul Viguier & Associés + sisto studios

At first glance, the two connected helical stairs we made for the Aurore tower in the La Défense business district of Paris look fairly straightforward. But two aspects of this project, in which we collaborated with Viguier Architecture and Sisto Studio, were very challenging – the tightness of the building site, and the fact that our own engineers spotted a problem with the existing floor slabs.

The building’s original tower crane had been removed, so our installation team had to drop the elements of the stairs into the building’s interior using a long-armed truck crane, and then spider-lifts to position the stairs internally. Our engineers noticed that the existing edges of the floor slabs would not ‘meet’ the top of the helixes correctly, so the stairs were slightly rotated in plan to meet new, structurally accurate floor-edges which we designed in collaboration with the contractor.

The stairs and the long balcony balustrade on the upper level are made of raw steel to fit in with the industrial aesthetic of the interior, and it was crucial to preserve their pure monolithic character, which is why our team made sure all joints and welds are invisible.