Origami office: Fluid building faèade made of marble

This was the challenge that architect Manuelle Gautrand faced when designing the Origami office building on Avenue de Friedland, near the Arc de Triomphe. According to regulations, the building had to incorporate stone into its façade to fit in with the rest of the street. Accordingly, Gautrand and her team used a traditional material, marble, and manipulated it to look as light as paper.

‘The panels are composite, a film of marble mounted on a twin layer of glass,’ explains the architect in a statement.

The surprising softness of the marble recalls our Haptic Illusion design direction, in which designers use materials in new ways, creating trompe l’oeil effects to seemingly transform them into something they are not.