It was commissioned as part of the Grands Travaux of President François Mitterrand, and designed by the architects Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro for the main area, as well as Louis Arretche and Roman Karasinsky for the two northwestern buildings.

It is a massive complex made of several buildings, named after major French statesmen (Colbert, Necker, Sully, Turgot, Vauban), as well as of a detached convention centre.

The department headquarters had been housed there since May 1871, in expansions built during the Second Empire for the Ministry of State and other ministerial offices alongside rue de Rivoli.

[4] Most employees, which numbered several thousands, were actually scattered in other government buildings, and another purpose of the move was for a large part of them to work in a single location.

[8] Additional buildings to the northwest of the initial lot, which became Turgot and Sully, were commissioned to Louis Arretche and Roman Karasinsky in July 1983 based on an earlier submission to the SNCF.

[6] Chemetov recalled that Mitterrand took a limited interest in the project by comparison with other of the Grands Travaux, and might have chiefly wanted to symbolically tone down the influence of the powerful department.

[4] There were significant cost overruns, as is common for massive construction projects, but also because the initial stages had been rushed due to the parallel launch of the Grand Louvre operation, and the competition was held with little financial consideration.

[12] It was not well received by some at the ministry, both due to the modern architecture of the new headquarters and because the area was deemed peripheral by comparison with the main government institutions and offices.

Édouard Balladur, who was the main minister in the cohabitation government opposed to Mitterrand, delayed construction for a time when he took office in 1986, and although his predecessor had moved to another government house, hôtel de Roquelaure, he had the prior offices restored at the Louvre and settled there despite the ongoing work for the Grand Louvre, refusing to move to Bercy in 1988.

Although Jacques Chirac, the mayor of Paris, was Mitterrand's main opponent in the 1980s, he supported the move, as his urban planners argued for the development of the East of the city.

[12][19] As typical of postmodernism, it includes elements from the architecture of previous centuries: the general shape of the Colbert building is inspired by a viaduct, and it is flanked by a (dry) moat, over which a small bridge leads to the ceremonial gate.

[20] Bérégovoy Hall, a 140 m corridor to the ministerial offices, has columns and a floor decorated with 28 types of marble, reminding of Italian Renaissance architecture.

[6][22] Paul Chemetov noted that it is the only major public building perpendicular to the Seine, since others (Louvre, musée d'Orsay, palais de Chaillot etc.)

[24] A piece of well-known equipment is Télédoc, an automated mail delivery system which circulates 445 miniature carts between 122 “stations”, which was maintained even after the digitization of much of internal communication and still carried five tons of paper every day as of the 2010s.

It is accessed from boulevard de Bercy by a small bridge spanning over the moat; however, it is only opened for official visits, as well as for European Heritage Days.

It is named after Vauban, who was commissioner general for fortifications to Louis XIV, and although, he never served as a minister, is considered one of the greatest military engineers in French history.