Covered Pedestrian Crossing in Tourcoing, France by Atelier 9.81

Article source: Atelier 9.81

Downtown Tourcoing is currently at the heart of an extensive restructuring, launched a few years ago. All public spaces, streets and squares are being fully renovated, and a large shopping mall with movie theatres will be inaugurated soon. As part of this project, the Metro, tram and bus station come together to offer a true multimodal system.

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

• Architects: Atelier 9.81
• Project: Covered Pedestrian Crossing
• Location: Tourcoing, France
• Project owner: SEM Ville Renouvelée
• Project Information: Covered pedestrian crossing between two public squares
• Project surface: 150 M2 of covered crossing
• Budget: 400,000 euros (excluding taxes)
• Planning: Delivery in September 2010

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

Project management:

• Atelier 9.81, urbanist architects
• Geoffrey Galand + Cédric Michel, architects
• Lucie Vandenbunder, project chief
• IOSISgroup, BE generalist
• Les Produits de l’Épicerie, graphic designers

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

The project of a covered pedestrian crossing for downtown Tourcoing is born of this new direct relationship between transportation modes (with the bus station on one side and the trams and subway on of the other), between the Place du Doctor Roux and the Place Charles et Albert Roussel.

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

The pedestrian crossing will fit into a row of townhouses of the same style, taking the place of one of them. By breaking thus with the alignment, the pedestrian crossing asserts itself visually, with the orange-red hues used on the open gables and by the constitution of a retro glassed facade, lit up at night.

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

Stepping into the void thus constituted, the project consists in erecting a canopy representing an urban origami;  Fine sheet of graphic Alucobond, a support for the signage designed with this project in mind.  Spread out over a 20-meter-long, 4.5-meter-wide area, this sheet reveals numerous complex folds and height variations, from which it derives its uniqueness.  The covering ends in a notable slope, signalling the pedestrian crossing from the Tram terminus and the entrance to the shopping mall and Metro. The crossing’s floor is made of gray granite pavement, an extension of the planned layout for all downtown public spaces.

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

Image Courtesy Atelier 9.81

Plan

Model

Concept

Tags: France, Tourcoing

Category: Port's public spaces

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