Elizabeth de Portzamparc won the architectural competition to design the new railway station in Le Bourget, iconic station of the Grand Paris Express network.
Following the international competition of contemporary architecture that has gathered great names such as Norman Foster and UN Studio, Elizabeth de Portzamparc was chosen to realize the Railway station of le Bourget, one of the four most iconic stations of the “Grand Paris” among Villejuif, Noisy-Champs and Clichy-Montfermeil. The key principle of the project relies on four major issues:
1. Urban and regional issues: A metropolitan station of the “Grand Paris”
The Grand Paris new metropolitan’s station, located in Le Bourget, will become the entry point of the city. Connected to the Grand Paris Express (GPE), the future regional urban center, in junction with the international airport hub, will be fully integrated to the Grand Paris network. It will be a strategic site for the articulation of the three communes: Le Bourget, Drancy and La Courneuve.
2. Issues of mobility: towards a metropolitan hub
The new station will become a metropolitan hub, connecting different means of transport at different scales: local, regional, national, and international. It will help to develop a more efficient network while achieving economies of scale through the concentration of resources and effective interconnections.
3. Issues of visibility: the "totem"
Used as a strong architectural statement, the "totem" increases the station visibility despite a landlocked site, and becomes the symbolic and landmark identity of the Parisian metropolis. The equipment’s accessibility is designed to be intuitive and effective. The station will be dealt with two courts on two levels. Its animation will provide new local urban forums to the residents and offer a true quality of life.
4. Issues of quality usage and flexibility
The underground platforms were designed under the principle of "total flex”, where the interior structures are flexible and allow the venue of future programming (small businesses at the docks level, connection with other modes of transport, extension of the railway network such as the metro line 7 ...).
Thanks to the used materials (wood, warm colors) and a strong presence of nature, the station becomes a place to "live," a combination of user-friendly and sensorial atmosphere. The principle of the great English court avoiding the feeling of «basement effect» enables to bring natural light down to the underground platforms.
Prolonging the theory of Elizabeth de Portzamparc on the towns and cities’ identity, already expressed in her tramway station project in Bordeaux, this ”forum-station” and its equipment cannot be reduced to its technical or functional versatility, but should be apprehended as a project that fully carries the symbolic identity of the city without neglecting the human scale.
