MVRDV officially got the green light from the City of Paris for their plans to restructure the Vandamme Nord at Gaîté-Montparnasse in Paris' 14th arrondissement. Built in the early 1970s by French architect Pierre Dufau, the mixed-use complex is located on a triangular island bordered by Rue Mouchotte, Avenue du Maine, and the rail tracks to Gare Montparnasse.

The Vandamme was once a landmark as one of the largest urban projects at the time, but -- with dying malls continuing to be the norm -- its glory days faded away as it failed to keep up with a changing urban society. 

Aiming to renew a sense of place within the Montparnasse district and improve public accessibility, MVRDV plans to give the building a new façade as well as completely reorganize and open up the building's internal program. The complex will be broken up into a collection of "boxes" inserted in the existing structural frame that will vary in size, program, color, and materials, and will also be flexibly designed for future demands.

The new program includes: extra commercial spaces, a 6-story office block, 62 social housing units and a 500 m² kindergarten center, and expanding the Bibliothèque Vandamme. The plan also consists of upgrading the current back face of the building and 150 parking spaces for scooters inside the underground parking lot.

Unibail-Rodamco commissioned the project, which was conceived by MVRDV in collaboration with local architect SRA, engineers SCYNA4, installation consultant LAFI + INEX, cost consultant VANGUARD, façade engineers RFR, acoustic consultant LASA and BATISS for fire safety.