ECDM designed this 31,000 m² mixed use complex that will accommodate offices, shops, hotels and housing. Located opposite the Saint-Etienne Châteaucreux TGV station, on the Esplanade de France, the complex aims to embed the large commercial component of the neighborhood in a more complex urban dynamic. Take a look at the complete story after the jump.
From the architects:
CONTRIBUTE TO A NEW POLARITY
Located across from the St-Etienne station on the Esplanade de France, the influence of the intervention at the heart of the ZAC Château creux is a link between neighborhoods and horizon lines, a low point in the topography of St-Etienne in front of a preferred route to the city center. Combined with the scale of the project and the symbolic value of the program, this unique location gives the project a special status in the construction of the city.
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The project subscribes to the contemporary idea of the construction of the city that leads to the creation of rhythms, of multipurpose spaces contributing to the realization of a less linear environment, able to evolve and mutate. The goal is to embed the large commercial component of the neighborhood in a more complex urban dynamic, made of interlocking assemblies essential to any large and vibrant city. Thus, the project offers an open floor plan, initiating continuity and affiliations,creating links between polarity and panoramas,hills and plains, lower and upper town.
TOPOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
In a preliminary study of the uses of land in St-Etienne, we began to articulate a sculpted volume, defined by its relationship to a city structured by the frames and cut outs on the horizon. The initial volume deforms, breaks into three compact masses, a multiplicity of plans and volumes and two mineral axes. The volume deteriorates in a specific manner leading to the establishment of a new topography.It is therefore a very open plan, traversable and animated, a space organized by the characteristics of the multi-purpose program,able to create discourse with the city to better develop and animate it. Considerations ofdensity, mass, voids and solids were central in the development of the project. The projectis first extruded to form an exact podium to ensure alignment and management of tight limits in order to densify and animate public spaces without residual anecdote.
The heart of the block forms a fifth unifying and transversable facade, which is fully engaged inthe work of modeling the volume, creates an open promenade and provides a view of the surrounding landscape.
Find more projects by ECDM: ecdm.eu
