Miralles Tagliabue EMBT and Bordas+Peiro have been announced as winner among 5 proposals of a two stage competition organized by the Société du Grand París, to design the future metro station Clichy – Montfermeil in Paris, France.

The Grand Paris is an ambitious project to modernize the existing transport network and create a new automatic metro – the Grand Paris Express for the Paris metropolitan area. New significant urban projects are planned to complete the works for this infrastructure. The station of Clichy Montfermeil and the above surrounding urban space is a particular case because it has a symbolic public intervention in a suburb area that was forgotten and abandoned during a long time. This neighborhood was the scene of the violent riots that occurred in October and November 2005 when cars and public buildings were burnt. A new station of the Grand Paris Express will be a symbol of the change for these areas. This new station will bring Paris to Clichy-sous-bois and to Montfermeil and will include them into the Grand Paris.

The project includes the underground station and also the planning of the new square that is to become a central pole in a renewed neighborhood.  It will provide an easy access to the inhabitants to a working place all over the Ille de France and in the same time will be a source of Urban renewal and mixed use area. For its relevance, this station is considered as emblematic for the Grand Paris and the social side of the project has been enhanced.

Proposal

The new station is located at the border of the two suburb small towns: Clichy-sous-bois and Montfermeil and is an important pole of connection of the metro network with new tram line and bus lines. In present, the neighborhood is engaged in a major urban operation whose first results can already be seen (new blocks of flats), but the space around the future square is unstructured and abandoned. An important green connection crosses the place following the course of the ancient “Aqueduct de la Dhuis” and this connection will be part of the new square. The place has a commercial vocation, which will be enhanced with the future realization of the metro station and other commercial buildings that are planned to be implemented in the future.

Our approach is looking for the maximum integration of the metro station’s access into the urban context. The access is made through a slow slope with stairs that invites the people coming out of the station to participate on the square. A pergola-roof is covering the entrance, the installations and the building of the station, the bicycle parking and continues on an important part of the square, protecting an area dedicated in the future to a periodical market (organized on Wednesday and Friday).

The idea was to give a new identity to this place, with a glance to the origins of many of his inhabitants. We would like to transform this grey and abandoned place into a vivid and colorful square, which inspires joy and optimism. This is why we based the motives of the pavement, the shapes and the colors of the roof on the tissues, decorative motives and colors from Africa.

Once entering the Metro Station, the circulation of the passengers towards and from the platforms is organized in a single unique space receiving natural light from a skylight. The access becomes a game, where the passengers can see each other but they don’t cross. The circulation has been brought into scene, and the passenger becomes the principal actor. The character of this unique space is given by the panels that cover the organic shape of the void, the same as the panels of the outside pergola.