Paris, France | June 27, 2020
As part of Paris’s plans to renovate and expand its current transportation network, Kengo Kuma and Associates have won the architectural competition of designing the Saint-Denis Pleyel Emblematic Train Station. The station is said to be “The first stone of a future global urban project in the site of Saint-Denis Pleyel. It will enable the site and the city to increase its metropolitan scale significantly,” according to the firm.
Designed by architect Kengo Kuma, the station will be one of the largest on the Grand Paris Express, which will handle 250,000 passengers a day and interconnect lines 14, 15, 16, and 17.
Saint-Denis Pleyel will have a total area of 34,000 square metres over nine levels, four of these below ground.
Work involves the main glass façades, the road and other networks, and the architectural and technical trades, finishing works and HVAC.
The firm aimed at altering the stress of the closed spaces usually used for train stations with open, interactive spaces. Therefore, the main goal was to change the daily experience of waiting for transportation into a more pleasing experience.
The station is composed of several subsequent spaces that form the main body, surrounded by spaces that complement the purpose of the building being a terminal. Using open spaces, unified slab levels, and bold transitional elements, the firm has put a lot of effort to provide a relieving interior for the station, whether in the four stories above the ground functioning as a train station, or the other four stories below the ground functioning as the underground metro station.
Light and ventilation are always key elements in the design of such public venues. For that purpose, the design is flooded with daylight, naturally ventilated, and well integrated with its surroundings. The elevations are largely transcendent, and the project is divided into two, separate sections in order to provide natural light and breeze even to the lower basements. Such approaches along with others -like the green roofs- assure the building will be a sustainable landmark of the city.
BESIX France was recently awarded the contract for the construction and finishing works on the Saint-Denis Pleyel station. The contract which is worth over 100 million euros, includes developing the station itself, as well as four separate underground constructions 800m apart, 3 service infrastructures dedicated to passenger safety, ventilation and smoke extraction of the tunnels (Ouvrage Cachin, Ouvrage des Etoiles and Ouvrage des Acrobates), and a system to reverse the direction of the trains (Ouvrage Finot).
The whole project will take 53 months, 10 of which will involve mobilisation to prepare for coordination (synthesis) with both the civil engineering works and the equipment works packages (rails, catenary, etc.) already being implemented by the consortium Eiffage, Razel-Bec and TSO.
René Jordens, Besix France’s commercial manager, said his team suggested “cutting-edge solutions to optimise the project in line with the client’s objectives”.
Olivier Vanderkerken, Besix’s estimated director, said: “Winning this project is the culmination of many months’ work done jointly by our Estimating teams in Paris and Brussels.
Project Credits
Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates
Client: Société du Grand Paris
