Jardins de l’Arche is an urban space to the west of Paris, the fruit of an urban regeneration project by the architectural firm AWP aimed at creating a genuine interchange between the famous business district of La Défense and the adjacent municipality of Nanterre.

The new neighbourhood covers an area of 15 hectares and is intended as a cultural and entertainment hub. It features a 600-metre, fully pedestrian promenade that stretches from La Grande Arche, symbol of La Défense, to the terraces of Nanterre, a sports arena that can hold up to 40,000 spectators, and to areas intended for commercial, administrative, school and hospitality buildings.

The French lighting design studio 8’18’’ was responsible for lighting this new public space, and, for the pedestrian promenade, chose Rio 2 linear profiles, in two alternating bespoke lengths of 892 mm and 1198 mm. Recessed into the pavement perpendicularly to the boulevard, these profiles with diffuse optics serve to visually unify the entire promenade, render it visible from a significant distance and give it dynamism.