A Civic Response Tower
B.Arch project done as a team of 2, to reimagine the Tour Montparnasse, as part of the advanced option Totalization Studio, at the Rice School of Architecture in Paris, under the instruction of OUALALOU + CHOI.


The Tour Montparnasse has been touted as ‘the most hated building in Paris’. Responding to the office tower’s current image as being unrelentingly opaque in both form and function, ‘Yes! Vacancy’ remagines the monolithic presence of the Tour Montparnasse as a beacon of stability for the city in times of flux, through expandable capacity created via movable floors. The project was conceptualised during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis, where many European cities including Paris saw a surge in its transient population.



The new tower negotiates between visual public space and occupied public space, proposing that the skyline is conditionally loaned out during times of civic need, and for the views to be returned to the city whenever the flexible floors are not activated. The building is hence an urban proposal for the re-appropriation of privately-managed spaces into negotiable public spaces.


