In this spirit the central square is clearing

Attention, sensitive field! Alphonse-Fiquet circumscribed by the station, apartment buildings and Tower in view, is one of the recent achievements (1942-1951) of the Perret brothers, architects and contractors of renowned, whose work is inseparable from modern history with the concrete reinforced for thread and Reconstruction for apogee. This ordered set including the belfry is 100 metres which made the building earlier in Europe of his time is protected as heritage. As the city centre of le Havre, same brothers Perret, now designated a world heritage, it enjoys renewed interest which clears the disenchantment of opinion for this Reconstruction architecture. Intervene in such a space, sacralized by the experts and indifferent to the greatest number, was a delicate exercise which the municipality of Robien has embarked upon the 1990s. Crossed by an axis of circulation and dealt with in a vaguely planted parking area, public space in the centre of the composition appeared to float in its concrete historical framework. Its redevelopment has been the subject of two successive competitions, both won by the architect Claude Vasconi, which finally carried out its second project dating from 2002: "A large marquee cropping the plot carréafin of him giving a shape and a more urban scale, while adjusting the slope problems inherent in the site", summarizes the designer.

Duplicate access

Validated in 2006 by heritage authorities, the guardians of the work of the Perret and population amiénoise consulted on several occasions, the project was taken to forced March for delivery on the eve of the municipal elections, last spring, though development pedestrian street of Noyon which connects the station to downtown. According to some, this vast site cost his chair of Mayor Gilles de Robien, in favour of a new team led by Gilles Demailly (PS). Is the book. Its strong presence in fact the main door of the city. But development will take its meaning with the renovation of the station, whose operation will be amended in depth. The soil of the place is split-run between a perimeter level with the hall of the station and a central forecourt leading gently beneath the building, at the level of the docks. This access in the basement is now sealed, the work of delaying station to begin. In addition to the access to trains at the outset, double development surfaces of operation of the station and frees his monumental hall for new uses. Similarly, urban life can reclaim the pavement, released cars since the construction of an adjoining parking, and win the foot buildings Perret we would like to see renovated, as the Tower, with Windows and terraces from the large umbrella of glass and steel deployed in perimeter.

Understory light

This book in superstructure is the most visible part of the development, highlighting the perimeter of the place in Belvedere on the forecourt. Its coverage in canopy on a hectare, circumscribed location and framework the belfry Tower at the exit of the station. Very present, he dominated as much as it domestic public space from the top of its 2,000 tons: 700 tons of structural steel by the company Viry and 1,300 tonnes of glass laminated, worked by Bernard Pictet workshops. This huge horizontal canopy is unquestionably the shadow to the buildings and the building of the station also without Attica by Auguste Perret but it establishes a protected space and augurs for the revitalization of heritage as a whole. Designed by Claude Vasconi as "an artificial foliage supported by a forest of was disseminated", she changed course to a regular structure of large arborescent poles, but reduced number of strong section, supported of draughts crossed for bracing. The glazing of the roof, which has received a green color and variable density, enamelling provides instead an atmosphere of undergrowth to the moving lights. The wide edge in pulp of glass of the wall which belt the Belvedere emphasizes the effect, informed on the evening of the Interior. In this spirit, the central square is clearing. It is complemented with a basin flush with water jets balsa Lanhelin granite barrier soil and walls of the forecourt. The usual material of urban design had inspired Claude Vasconi grey attached to the frame manufactured and lacquered in the workshop, which was repainted in silver grey on-site. Apart from the colour, public opinion and criticism have not finished to devise on the merits of this book introduced by urbanity in the heart of an emblematic place of the rebuilt France. The Amiens arbitreront use.