Our project concerns four new Parisian metro stations that will extend line 14 past its current St. Lazare station terminus, with locations at Pont Cardinet, Porte de Clichy, Clichy St. Ouen, and Mairie de St. Ouen. Of particular importance for us in the envisioning of this project is the willingness to engage in coordinated urban development through the city. The space will exude the dynamic, urban, buzzing atmosphere of the 21st century metropolis. Confident in the enormous potential of a new architectural image, we have maintained an open and global approach to the project, free of preconceived notions. Leaving aside nostalgia and historicism, we have made our task one of reinterpreting and giving new sense to the metro’s space. Our architectural objectives are: sustainability, economy of means, the search for the symbolically urban. With regard to the metro, sustainability also involves its easy maintenance, a choice of durable materials, and the clarification of very precise technical detail guidelines. We wish to work with elements readily identifiable by users: ceramic, stone, glass; elements found in urban spaces in similar placement, such as paving stones in public squares. Without leading to the exclusion or erasure of specific elements (stairwells, escalators, metro), it will help facilitate resolution of problems, while reinforcing the qualitative aspect. The space is freed of all superfluous elements.
By AZC ATELIER ZÜNDEL CRISTEA
