HALO Project

Paris – La Défense

IF Architects  ►

 
 

In 2021, we began working with Studio AZAP on the HALO project by IF Architectes, located on the Esplanade de la Défense, producing the first visuals of the project.

These initial visuals focused on the “screen-like” façade concept, using projections to create optical illusions and a sense of depth.

As the project evolved, new images were produced in 2022 to illustrate the different states and expressions of HALO :

• When off, HALO’s semi-reflective mirrored façades give the building an almost immaterial, highly reflective appearance.
• When on, whether brightly lit along its walkways or more subtly through colored LED bands, HALO reveals glimpses of its interior life.
• HALO’s façades are also digital, featuring a suspended LED mesh behind the semi-reflective glazing. Designed to display artistic works and video content, the building becomes a medium that reflects its identity and programming.

In 2023, IF Architectes commissioned us to produce a presentation film for the project. This film involved several technical challenges due to the façades’ simultaneous transparency, reflectivity, and emissive qualities. Another key challenge was integrating HALO into the highly recognizable context of the Esplanade de la Défense, while accurately respecting the surrounding urban landscape reflected in its façades to ensure visual credibility. Incorporating HALO into on-site footage required us to fully master every aspect of video compositing and integration.

Finally, the architects wanted to experience HALO through an aerial sequence with a very wide field of view. Flying a drone over La Défense is stricktly forbidden, at least not without months of authorization. To overcome this constraint, we created camera movements directly within the Google Earth model. This approach gave us a great deal of freedom in terms of motion, despite the limited image resolution. Managing reflections on HALO was a real technical challenge: some elements were specifically modeled to appear only within the reflections of the glass façades !

The film was produced in just three weeks. It clearly marks a new step in the evolution of ILLUMINENS’ work and activities, opening up a new range of creative possibilities.
Our sincere thanks once again to IF Architects, and especially to Sandra Delamotte, for their trust and for giving us this opportunity.