Kengo Kuma’s completed design of the Saint-Denis–Pleyel metro station in Paris is one of the largest and most significant new projects highlighting the city’s push for sustainable urban renewal as a consequence of its turn as the host of the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Images shared following its inauguration on June 24th with President Emmanuel Macron in attendance showcase a horizontal composition distinct from the verticality of its surroundings. (It will later boast a sculptural installation from the French artist Prune Nourry.)

The station measures 377,000 square feet, making it the largest in the Grand Paris Express rail network. It’s designed to service 250,000 passengers a day from the new Metro lines 14 through 17, with connections to both RER D and GPE 4 commuter trains.

A key final aspect of the project are its fireproof fir slat acoustic roof panels and the ingrained connection to the forthcoming Pleyel bridge designed by Marc Mimram, which is expected by the end of next of 2026.  

The firm says work was guided by the “research of urban continuity.” “We wanted to erase the boundaries between the public space, the roof, and the bridge,” a project description reads. “The idea was to merge the station and the bridge in one building without marking clear boundaries.”

To accomplish this, each of its five levels is folded and inclined towards ramps and staircases, directing the flow of passengers from the area outside and the rooftop piazza to which it serves as an extension. Interior space is organized around a central vertically running void covered by a glass roof that allows natural light into the station's deep underground space, which reaches 92 feet below ground.

Competitors from the nearby Olympic Athletes’ Village (masterplanned by Dominique Perrault) will be among its first regular users, adding a Parisian complement to the 69-year-old Japanese visionary's National Stadium contribution to the 2020 Tokyo Games. 

Kuma's is one of the projects commended by critic Oliver Wainwright in his review of the 2024 Olympics' 'green' architecture. 

The firm recently inaugurated its new Audio Museum in Seoul and is also one of the 16 included in the Prix Versailles 'World's Most Beautiful Restaurants' list with its Restaurant Blanc design on the Rue de Longchamp in Paris.