French architect Jean-Paul Viguier chose white perforated metal to clad the three monolithic volumes of a secure cash-processing centre for a bank in Paris.

Jean-Paul Viguier et Associés was tasked with renovating a pair of existing buildings and introducing a new secure facility for the Banque de France, which is expected to handle over a billion banknotes.

The Paris-La Courneuve Fiduciary Centre is located on the site of the former Babcock & Wilcox factory, in the Seine-Saint-Denis district of northern Paris.
Bordering a motorway, the four-hectare industrial site had been largely disused for the past few decades, and the decision to locate the bank's fiduciary centre is part of a wider renewal of the area.

"The Fiduciary Centre creates a dialogue between each entity of the area but also with a wider environment," said the architects. "It is a question of an architectural openness of a site of which the primary function is precisely to be fully sealed."

Central to the architecture project is a 26-metre-high tower described by the architects as a safe. The tower and two adjoining cubic volumes are clad in white metal, with varying surface textures to help to break up the monolithic masses.

The facades of the largest structure are formed from perforated panels that produce a subtle pattern of light and shadow. The effect changes throughout the day, depending on the amount of sunlight falling on the surfaces.

The patterns and textures of ...