The "Maison Sanofi" by Studios Architecture: a new era for corporate seating

At a time when reinventing methods and the relationship to work requires reinventing workspaces, the "Maison Sanofi" embodies the new generation of the post-covid office, an uninhibited place that hybridizes codes and uses to offer a new model, more inclusive, more flexible and more humane.

Going beyond the very notion of head office, the site is defined as a Hub: a welcoming place open to the entire Sanofi community. Its approach is revolutionizing the role of the nerve centers of large international groups. Contrary to traditional codes, the building frees up space and uses so that everyone can appropriate multiple places, designed to flourish, share and innovate.

The SANOFI community is invited to experience a dynamic, modern and eco-responsible house, which instills a collaborative spirit on all floors.

"La Maison Sanofi" is writing a new page in the history of the post-covid office where it is now use that creates the place. The project radically breaks down the barriers of the classic office to leave a single place for the collective social experience, to live fully in the place and to share with the other sites of the group thanks to digital. The ambition displayed by SANOFI is revolutionizing the design of the headquarters of large groups, which are now opening up to their ecosystems, switching to 100% flexible and hybrid mode with new innovative working methods. » Hidekazu Moritani, Senior Partner of STUDIOS Architecture.

A hub designed as a sharing ecosystem

The objective of this new site is to create above all a place of socialization, collaboration and innovation. A "house" to receive all Sanofi employees around the world, as well as its broader ecosystem made up of start-ups, researchers, partners and customers.

On the two levels of the ground floor, the Agora and the seating area under the atrium represent the active heart of the building. A lively reception area, it offers multiple possibilities for reconfiguration according to events.

Designed to optimize openness to the Sanofi community, the reception hall reinvents the approach to security, incorporating new flexibility: two levels of access control have been designed to be able to adapt the level of accessibility according to function of events.

While 500 employees are attached to the site on the avenue de la Grande-Armée, it is designed to also receive 200 daily visitors. The easily appropriated spaces offer a wide variety of configurations to settle in quickly and feel at home. Strong marker of the transformation: 40% of the building is dedicated to shared spaces.

Work and restoration: overlapping and hybridization of programs

The sharing spaces are designed as hybrid spaces and offer multiple experiences throughout the day. Throughout the floors, all the meeting and meeting spaces are activated according to usage.

“The Kitchen” – a flexible space with multiple types of seating open all day turns into a coworking space outside of meals.

Tailor-made experiences

The user experience has been designed and adapted according to the different profiles: the employee present on a daily basis, the more flexible teleworker or the visitor from another site who comes to live an experience that is out of the ordinary.

100% flexible workspaces

On the 5 floors of offices, the binary relationship between workstations and meeting rooms is over. With the implementation of teleworking, the office is adapting to hybrid mode. Each space is designed to be experienced with great flexibility, according to the profiles and needs of the users. The workspace distinguishes active areas from quieter, more subdued areas conducive to concentration and individual tasks.

Flexibility is supported by technology. Mobile batteries make it possible to “liberate” uses. In the active area, the traditional workstation gives way to team tables with mobile furniture, and the "studios" with their retractable glass partitions, allow teamwork and a fluid transition into meeting mode in the same space.

The advent of digital communication to bring the whole community together

Communication is a central element in the post-Covid era: the site will host a TV studio and “blogger studios”. The auditorium is suitable for making and broadcasting recordings. The proliferation of small spaces suitable for videoconferencing (pods for 1, 2 or 4 people) responds to new modes of collaboration. The agile hall, for its part, will offer a space conducive to brainstorming and "creative thinking", and will be connected to other sites in real time through a "window" like a real spatio-temporal portal.