BUREF health centre

In early 2021, Paris La Défense began the restructuring and extension of the former "Buref" center, which has become a medical center, bringing together a medical center, an imaging center, and a pharmacy.

At the junction of the Place des Reflets and the Reflets district, between an entrepont (a sub-slab service area for deliveries) and the pedestrian level, Paris La Défense began work in early 2021 to create a medical center in an unoccupied volume on several levels, which will be at the service of the area's residents and users. The public spaces of the district are also being redeveloped.

A health center in the Reflets district

Designed by the Parisian firm Hélène Fricout-Cassignol Architects, commissioned by Paris La Défense, the center covers about 1,000 square meters with a health center linked to the Foch Hospital in Suresnes, an imaging center and a pharmacy. This health center is located in the former "Buref" shopping center built in the 1970s and vacant for several years. In line with its strategy of developing the volumes under the slab, Paris La Défense had therefore launched a rehabilitation project to revive this place and offer services open to all.

Concerning the development of public spaces, it is planned to connect the two levels from the patio with the creation of an elevator and a staircase allowing a vertical distribution between the steerage level and the slab level. Above the former Buref shopping center, a glass roof served as natural lighting for the entrance hall. It will be removed to make way for a vegetated terrace of approximately 180 m².

A two-stage project: restructuring of the volumes and interior fittings

Paris La Défense was involved in the rehabilitation of the volume. Among the first works, the cleaning, which consisted of removing the non-supporting elements in the building, and the removal of asbestos from the premises. The demolition work undertaken at the beginning of 2021 included all the interior and exterior demolitions to restructure the volumes and create the surface area needed to plant the exterior terrace.

Next, the finishing work, such as the woodwork, will be undertaken, followed by the exterior landscaping.

Once the empty shells were delivered by Paris La Défense, the work inside the commercial shells was carried out by the tenants themselves for an opening in September 2022.

The Reflets district, an example of diversity within the business district

This project is in line with the Public Establishment's strategy to rehabilitate unoccupied spaces, but it is also in line with its strategy to set up diversified everyday services in the Reflets district, especially for residents. On the Esplanade Nord, many projects to animate the area are being developed: for example, the Aurore project pavilion will offer a brasserie open to all, and the completely renovated Place de l'Iris will also host two restaurant chains.

A word about the architectural firm, specialized in the conversion of existing volumes

The Hélène Fricout-cassignol architects' office has carried out a wide variety of projects: from schools to research centers, from industry to residences and hospitals, in contexts and sites of varying complexity.

Their specialty: a taste for innovative architectures of the near past to rehabilitate and transform them in order to connect the city of tomorrow to the city of yesterday.

By intervening on the existing urban environment, the objective of this firm is to upgrade living environments in line with lifestyles. Culture, geography and history are then called upon. It is a question of drawing the contours of volumes capable of accommodating new practices, of resizing existing spaces, of giving them a new scale, of drawing forms corresponding to the new ways of living in urban space, of using certain materials rather than others, of choosing a structure that can allow for future developments.

Did you know ?

Built in 1972, the former BUREF shopping centre has been completely unoccupied since its last user left more than 20 years ago.