Le Grand Pavois [1968]

La Grand-Motte, the playground of visionary architect and philosopher Jean Balladur’s future ideal presents as a seaside town saturated with remarkably homogenous, pyramidal forms. Le Grand Pavois, much like many of the adjacent structures designed by Balladur, exhibits a stepped form with repeated concrete facade elements offering articulation to the facade and shading beyond. With all his structures exhibiting sizeable landscaped spaces to activate the ground plane and offset building scales, Le Grand Pavois is of particular note with a vast shaded colonnade and concrete discs arising from a central reflective pond positing an analogue to natural environments.