Nantes. Lan completes 360° View, a diaphanous 18-storey tower

The residential building is part of the transformation of the Polaris District, a former industrial and port area on the Île de Nantes, France.

The Paris-based architecture studio Lan completes the 360° View tower in Nantes, the first – and highest – of 6 buildings to be delivered in the framework of the masterplan of the Polaris District at Ile de Nantes and is part of the Brossette block. The intervention, which is the outcome of a competition, directly faces the Loire river.

The tower contains 79 unrestricted and affordable housing units and a commercial surface of 235 sqm on the ground floor. The various heights defining the outline of 360° View are taken from the neighbouring buildings; its sharp volume is cladded with smooth brushed aluminium that produces the reverberation of a diaphanous light. The horizontal composition of the cladding is designed to filter the relationship of the apartments with the surroundings through framed views enriched with perforated shutters sliding vertically. Each apartment is organised around a loggia that regulates the ventilation to the interiors; at the same time, the element of the loggia represents an extension of the living space stretched towards the outside.