Just two months after signing the AXA-CB31 renovation contract (more than 300 million euros) for the tallest building in La Défense business district near Paris (218 metres high), Bouygues Construction has won two contracts for tower buildings in Switzerland and in Russia. Totalling more than 185 million euros, these projects confirm the Group’s know-how and its leading position in the construction of skyscrapers. 

In Switzerland, Losinger has started construction of the country’s tallest building, Prime Tower. The project, worth a total of close to 215 million euros (71 million for Losinger), is being carried out in conjunction with contractor Karl Steiner SA. The contract with Swiss Prime Site AG was signed by Losinger as lead firm of the consortium. Located in a rapidly expanding district west of Zurich, the 36-storey tower will be the tallest in Switzerland (126 metres high). Designed by architectural firm Gigon-Guyer, it will have more than 40,000 sq. metres of entirely modular office space. Up to 2,000 people will work in the building whose innovative design will enable daylighting in all points, right to the centre. As part of the same project, Losinger and Karl Steiner SA will also build another two buildings – Cubus and Diagonal – with a total floor area of 7,000 sq. metres, and a 260-space car park. The works will take three years.

In Russia, Bouygues Construction's local subsidiary Bouyguesstroï is to build a luxury residential development in Yekaterinburg (1). The contract, worth a total of 136 million euros (116 million euros for Bouyguesstroï), was awarded by UGMK, a major diversified industrial group. To be known as Iset, this residential development is the first high-rise building to be constructed in Ekat City, a new 600,000-sq.-metre business district currently being developed in downtown Yekaterinburg. The work of architectural firm Valode & Pistre, the Iset tower will stand 215 metres tall and feature a particularly original design. The 50-storey luxury residential development will comprise 115 apartments, 244 parking spaces, a fitness club and a swimming pool. In the light of the extreme weather conditions – temperatures reach minus 30°C in winter – and the tight construction time, Bouyguesstroï will employ innovative construction techniques consistent with local conditions, including self-climbing forms as well as heating systems and wrap covers to protect from severe cold. Works have just started on the project and will last three years.

These projects reflect the interest in constructing and renovating buildings in the business districts of major capitals. Bouygues Construction is actively engaged on the tall buildings market, both in France and internationally (particularly in South-East Asia) and undertakes renovation as well as new-build projects (see following pages).

⁽¹⁾ Yekaterinburg, Russia's third-largest city after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, is the administrative centre of the Sverdlovsk region and capital of the Urals. It has a population of 1.5 million.