Tour without End

In 1989, a competition was announced for the development of a plot of land called Triangle de la Folie (Triangle of Madness) in the modern Paris district of La Défense. The modestly sized plot was surrounded by a major roadway, railway tracks, and a cemetery. Nouvel and Ibos threw all restrictions aside and, with the same boldness as the neighboring CNIT or the Arch, proposed the Tour sans Fins (Tower without Ends) - a cylindrical structure with a diameter of 42 meters rising over 400 meters high. The authors chose to respond primarily to Spreckelsen's La Grande Arche (vertical x horizontal, circle x square, mass x transparency). The aim was not to provoke with contrast, but to complement the site and create a synergistic relationship. The circular shape without corners is hard to grasp in the play of light and shadow. Infinity here is not just a pun. The tower looks as if it truly rises from the Earth's core. At the surface, it emerges from a crater, its dark granite shell transforming into aluminum as it rises, until it completely disappears into clouds like glass.
Nouvel's project ultimately won the competition. With the help of the engineering firm Ove Arup, it was developed for several years, but it was never built.