Saint Denis Pleyel Station
The Grand Paris Express project began in 2007 in an attempt to relieve overcrowding and environmental degradation in the center of Paris with a new ring-shaped subway network. We designed the station building that will serve as the northern hub of the project.
The entire station was made into a park by creating greenspace on the rooftop and connecting it to the ground by a ramp, redefining the building not as a closed box but as a public space for the community. This multi-level park became a bridge over the railroad line, attempting to resolve the division of the community by the main railroad line from the north of France.
The “green station” is softly wrapped in a curtain wall made of oak, and the 30-meter-deep atrium that accesses the four metro lines is also entirely covered in wood, creating a soft and warm space that contrasts with the conventional stations made of concrete and steel. The rooftop garden reconnects the divided neighborhoods, and the wooden atrium reconnects the earth to the sky. In the atrium, 108 statues of Venus evoking the mother of the Earth by artist Prune Nourry are placed.