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The Grande Arche de la Fraternité, more famous as the Arche de la Défense or Grande Arche, is a monument located in La Défense area, in the Western suburb of Paris, in the city of Puteaux.

The works have been done from 1983 to 1989, year of its inauguration during the G7 summit which happened this year.
One of the Grande Arche particularities is that it is at the extremity of a linear axis which goes from the Louvre pyramid to the Grande Arche, passing through the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe, located at the top of the Champs Elysées. When the weather is fine, it is possible to catch sight of the Grande Arche from the Louvre pyramid and vice versa.

On its exterior sides, the Grande Arche is covered with 5cm-thick plates of glass, specially treated to avoid the optic distortion and resist to very strong winds. The other siding materials are covered with plates of white Carrare marble and grey granite. It is built on 12 pillars, put down on hydraulic jacks in order to allow the frail subsoil to support its 300 000 tonne mass.

The Grande Arche is built around a megastructure, which constitutes the architectural equivalent of the human skeleton. Each horizontal face of the cube is composed of 16 75 metres long concrete crossbeams. Series of prestressed steel cables encircle the building so that, as a dice, the Grande Arche could stay on every face. The construction of the two pillars has lasted about one year, two independent teams working at the same time on each one of the pillars. 2000 skilled workers worked on this building site. Two of them died during the construction of the superior structures. The Northern and Southern faces welcome a part of the Minister of Ecology, Development and lasting fitting-out, as well as the International Foundation for the Human Rights.

The Grande Arche de la Défense is served by the metro station La Défense-Grande Arche (according to Wikipedia).

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