BIG has unveiled renderings for its new Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub project in Toulouse, France’s fourth largest city. The 129,000-square-foot building connects the city center to the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi and the Périole neighborhood and will be realized adjacent to the existing Gare Matabiau, which was first built in 1905.

The local studio A+ Architecture is also contributing to the project. The design is for a mass timber structure topped with a rose-colored folded roof replete with photovoltaics and finished in the same tone by a low-carbon concrete floor. Both of these reference the vernacular use of "foraine" brick architecture that is endemic to the southern departmental capital. 

Rising exponentially to a height of seven stories, users will access the building on one end and be greeted by shops and a subterranean connector to the metro station underneath. Further on, floors one through six include 71,000 square feet of offices for the regional Occitanie government, joined by a retail component and an events space called the Maison du Climat.

Rammed earth and other materials will be used in the public areas for partitions. BIG said they are pursuing a Silver Occitanie Sustainable Buildings certification and Biodiversity Effinature and HQE Infrastructure certification for the design, which is completed by a 1,000-unit open-air bike park located outside. Construction will start in 2026 and reach the culmination of its first underground building phase by 2028.

"The building’s elegant silhouette, growing northward in height, curves along rue de Périole. Ground and lower floors will offer areas for rest and retail and the Maison du Climat event space, while upper floors accommodate regional offices. Pursuing low carbon solutions in the design, we employed mass timber, low carbon concrete, and natural ventilation throughout, with photovoltaics on the roof. This simple yet multifunctional design transforms the roof into Toulouse’s new landmark," Jakob Sand, BIG's Partner in Charge for the project, described of their ambition.

This will be BIG's second realized work in France after the Maison de l’Économie Créative et de la Culture Aquitaine (or MÉCA) in Bordeaux, which was completed in 2019.

The firm recently put forth its vision for a mixed-use hotel and casino concept near the UN headquarters in New York City and was in the news also for designing the proposed new home of the relocated Oakland Athletics MLB franchise in Las Vegas with HTNB. 

BIG's founder Bjarke Ingels spoke with our Niall Patrick Walsh recently for a feature about AI, 3D printing, and the future of professional practice after his firm's debut of its contribution to the new CODEX catalog at the SXSW festival in Texas. Another European mass timber transit hub design, the Västerås Travel Center in Sweden, is expected for 2025.