Tours Aillaud

Despite the differences in height, the towers share the same shape, consisting of the superposition of several cylinders.

Their cladding is made of frescos representing clouds in the sky (in French nuages), which is the origin of their nickname.

The frescos in "pate de verre" were designed by Fabio Rieti, son-in-law of Emile Aillaud, while his daughter Laurence Rieti designed the large snake shaped sculpture that constitutes a large part of the playground area near the highest towers.

The buildings were derided by art critic Robert Hughes in his 1980 BBC documentary series The Shock of the New:[citation needed] Without respect for the body as it is, social memory as it stands, there is no such thing as a workable or humane architecture.

And that’s why a place like this - La Defence outside Paris, is experienced by everybody, including those who live in it, as a piece of social scar tissue, gimmicky, condescending alphaville modernism.