Villejuif Gustave Roussy Station / Dominique Perrault ArchitectureSave this picture! Michel DenancArchitects: Dominique Perrault ArchitectureAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:15364 mYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Michel Denanc Special Structures: TESSRoofing: TESSMore SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. The Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station aims to erase the threshold between the open public space and the closed space of the station by blurring the limits of the city. Its helicoidal architecture on the surface exerts a centripetal force on the urban fabric which draws it towards the space that has been completed underground. The large concrete cylinder with its molded wall, flooded with light, is traversed, and enlivened by footbridges and escalators. Here, the sky of this inverted skyscraper is simply the ground level of the city. Natural light pours all the way down to the platforms located some fifty meters below. The sky is above the railways. This exposed infrastructure is given maximum visibility and incorporates the logic of construction. The architectural layout is part of the urban cityscape. By erasing in the ground and prolonging uses and views between the surface and the subterranean domain, it unifies the vertical dynamics of access to the transport network. The architectural treatment transfigures this infrastructure now become architecture. Without walls or faade, the architecture of this station sunken into the ground is not in opposition to the city or anything else. It frees the horizon and disappears from the urban silhouette, swallowing up with it then bit of sky. - Dominique Perrault, 2024Save this picture!The Groundscape and the Territory - Today, the Grand Paris Express is the largest project of civil engineering in Europe including over 200 km of automated lines and 68 new stations. It involves first and foremost a territorial project and the making of a new city in sync with the collective aspirations for a new urban experience. The Grand Paris Express is a major piece of this major bet of the metropolis. A new territory is taking shape before our eyes, made available to the greatest number. The objective is not merely to ensure access to the capital for all inhabitants of the region but also to develop new zones of life and activity across the entire metropolitan region. The development of the districts surrounding the new stations of the Grand Paris Express is, in that sense, a challenge of urbanity inherent to the territory's program of metropolization. Their perimeters, defined as a circle of 800m in circumference, will represent nothing less than one and a half times the size of Paris proper and more than twenty percent of the population of the new metropolis. What are the challenges facing Grand Paris? Increasing the hospitality of cities, exurban and rural zones, rectifying spatial segregation and relegation of every type, encouraging social diversity without further weakening the most disadvantaged citizens, promoting housing and new modes of habitat, optimizing mobility, intensifying the connections between urban centers, contribute to the boosting labor markets, and, finally, to the emergence of the sustainable metropolis facing the challenge of climate change.Save this picture!The Socit des grands projets is one of France's leading project developers. It was created in June 2010, initially under the name Socit du Grand Paris, to manage the construction of the Grand Paris Express and support the transformation of the metropolis through urban development and real estate projects around the stations. 200 km of automated metro and 68 stations by 2030. The Grand Paris Express is the most important urban development project in Europe, in terms of the breadth of its future network of 200 km of metro, the innovation of its 68 stations, the urban impact of its 140 km2 across the territories of Grand Paris, and the ambition f its artistic and cultural approach along its entire length. Like all 68 new stations on the Grand Paris Express, the Villejuif - Gustave Roussy station has its own unique architecture. From the outset, the Socit des Grands projects wanted each of the new stations to go beyond its functional framework, leaving an urban and architectural legacy for the area it serves. All the stations have been designed in collaboration with renowned architects, making some of them among the most aesthetically pleasing in the world. The aim of Socit des grands projets is to make travel as pleasant as possible, with aesthetic, practical and comfortable passenger buildings that contribute to the urban and social transformation of the territory. A project for transforming the city, Line 14 is extended to the north and south of Paris. 4 new automated metro lines, serve the inner and outer rings of suburbs. 68 stations, all accessible, designed for the comfort of passengers, and open to the city. 80% of the stations, are connected to the existing network: Metro, RER, Transilien, and Tramway. 2 to 3 mn, between each train, with an average speed of between 55 and 65 km/h. 3 million voyagers transported each day. The Grand Paris Express will relieve the pressure on the existing network.Save this picture!Save this picture!A Metropolitan Station - Located on the highest point of the Longboyau Plateau, in the departmental park of the Hautes Bruyres, the Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station, with a depth of some 50 meters separating the street level from one of the platforms, will be one of the deepest transport infrastructures in France. Located on line 15 South, which links Pont de Svres with Noisy-Champs, the future Villejuif Institut Gustave-Roussy will create the interconnection with the extended line 14 and will welcome some 100,000 passengers every day from January 2025. It will serve the ZAC Campus Grand Parc and the Institut Gustave-Roussy, the leading cancer treatment center in Europe. An emblematic station of the Rseau du Grand Paris Express, owing as much to the role of infrastructure in developing the territory, as to the interconnection it will ensure between two metro lines, the architecture for the future station expresses the determination of the project to place in dialogue, unite, and federate these spaces.Save this picture!Extending the City Underground - There is no formal demonstrativeness or eccentricity from the design point of view. Essentially developed below ground, on the surface takes the appearance of a pavilion, and blends the outside with the inside, the infrastructural and the urban. It structures the emergence of new territory of the Grand Paris and contributes to the transformation of the city into a metropolis, and the suburbs into a city. It involves placing the hospital center in a network and transforming its surrounding district onto a campus. The station as an element of this system, is a "place of exchange", a central element of the interconnections between the major hospital, future office and housing buildings, and the large park. It will also create a link between the urban and landscape places, by extending the uses and the views between above and below.A generous space, the station stretches, loosens, and infiltrates the underground, like an extension of the city below ground. Its architecture is designed in the continuity of the surrounding public space. It does not oppose the city, stand against it, raise any sort of faade, no wall. This station must be grasped as a connector of the world below with the world above, and vice versa. It is a great cylinder, open, and empty, with a diameter of 70 meters. An emptied 30 meters inside the cylinder, surrounded by galleries and balconies, welcomes the great escalators. The engineering studies were developed in a way that the design of the infrastructure corresponds to the design of the station: light and readable architecture that accompanies flows as naturally as possible.Save this picture!Connecting the Gustave Roussy Hospital with the Larger Network - On the level of the square, the forecourt leads naturally towards the first balcony overlooking the central void. Little kiosks house a range of services and punctuate the periphery of the station. Walls draped with metal mesh enable the closure of the station. These elements are a light form of limited offering a view of the city and the park. Open access (i.e., without a ticket) is possible down to level -2. The first two levels of balcony galleries house shops and services, accentuating the continuity of the station with the public space above. The project facilitates easy comprehension of the space and the circulations. When leaving the platforms, directly linked to the vast central void, users easily find their bearings and directions. From the two levels of platforms the two metro lines being located in two perpendicularly superimposed tunnels - monumental escalators lead to the surface, guided by natural light.Save this picture!Save this picture!An Open-Air Station - The station benefits from natural light and ventilation. In direct contact with the platforms, the vast central void and the various balcony circulations are bathed in natural light and open air. This principle is what makes one of the forms of the prowess of this infrastructure possible, i.e., the one eliminating the need for smoke extractors in its central part (the well). Travelers will also be in contact with the ambient temperature, which is more temperate at this depth than on the surface, without reliance on additional heating. The roof over the station is composed of three layers. A central transparent circular one protects from rain while allowing outside air to circulate laterally. This roof consists of one peripheral beam on which all the tie rods and cables are linked with the central hub, the "eye" of the station. Stretched over the cables are elements made of ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene), the material chosen for its high quality of transparency, lightness, resistance, and great fineness. Two other roofs, non -concentric disks placed at two different heights, cover the station. Like two great marquees, they radiate over the forecourt and signal the presence of the station whilst also ensuring user protection from the sun, like sunshades over the public space. They are composed of strips of stainless-steel spiraled metal mesh, stretched between the radial rafters.Save this picture!Resilience - Resilience is a word of our times. A programming word, capable of creating a system given that it predicts the future of human societies facing planet-wide climatic shock, along with these watch words: assimilate, endure, react, subsist. By resilience, one designates the ability of materials to resist forces of rupture and weather. By choosing concrete for the structure and glass and stainless steel for cladding, the station is anchored in the determination of solidity and durability. The overall composition is minimal and all the elements have a function, whether structural or technical. By employing natural resources available underground, the station is as delicately integrated as possible in its environment, which enables, among other advantages, to insulate the interior from the exterior earth and to maintain a constant temperature by using the surrounding earth, thereby eliminating the need for additional heating, air-conditioning, or smoke extraction. This ensures important cost savings, sustainability, and comfort of users.Save this picture!Save this picture!The "Sous-Terrestre" - The world underground is often synonymous with discomfort, cold, mystery, and obscurity. The station being anchored in the deep whilst allowing light and air to pour in, offers users the opposite experience. As users penetrate this space, they understand that the ground is no longer anxiety-provoking, closed, and damp, but rather that it offers comfort and an experience engaging all the senses. The central well makes it possible to gather in the heart of this innovative facility all travelers who, though in transit, are in contact with what is happening inside. By confusing the public space and the station, the project transgresses the traditional terminology of buried works to become a fully public facility. It is in this sense that the station is the extension of the city in that we encounter the same ambiance whether we are above or below. The station is no longer merely a work of transport infrastructure, and a place of circulation, but now it has become a lively place of exchange offering users, beyond simply a concentration of services, new forms of urban living, between individual pathways and the public space. Places in the fullest sense of the term, endowed with qualities, able to host uses that exceed transport.Save this picture!Materiality, Light, Acoustics - Galle Lauriot-Prvost, an associate of the Dominique Perrault Architecture firm, designed the interior layouts, lighting, and acoustics. The materiality of the project makes use of stainless steel in a range of textures: smooth, mesh, perforated, mirror polish, and satiny. These finishings create different ambiances, whilst also favoring the propagation of light, through the play of reflections, brilliances, and filters. Des disks with a surface area of 3,273 m, composed of swaths of spiraled stainless-steel mesh, stretched between radial beams, structure the exterior roof. Inside, 1,808 m of silvery aluminum wire clad the great well, thus electrifying the heart of the station. Originally an industrial product, previously considered as cold and rigid, metal mesh is assigned a new function: neither wall nor structure, it is used to rethink the notion of protection, and acoustics, dematerialize volumes, introduce the play with lighting and reflection, and to clad here and there the station and its facilities. On the ceiling, light fixtures and acoustic baffles alternate, giving the station a regular rhythm. Light from the industrial light fixtures blends with daylight and is reflected by the metal surfaces, immersing travelers in a genuine light show.Save this picture!Save this picture!Artistic Commission - The Socit des Grands Projets early on decided to dedicate one per one thousand of its budgetary resources, some thirty-five million euros, for the inclusion of contemporary art in the spaces and the architecture of the 68 new stations, designed as full-fledged living areas and places of discovery. A vast museum visited by everyone with a transport ticket. A Subterranean Vault of Heaven - "Evolve the frontiers that separate interior spaces of the station towards infinite architectural orientations." Such was the ambition of the Chilean artist Ivan Navarro for his project in the heart of the Villejuif station. The artist became an astronomer and a bit of magician to cause to appear, in the location of the circular ceiling of level -9 a sky studded with neon tubes and mirrors, creating the sensation of infinite depth. The names of stars have been engraved on the 58 light boxes of which it is composed. This work offers a cosmic visual experience to all passengers. Cadran Solaire by Ivan Navarro - Ceiling Level -9, LED tubes, mirrors made of Dibond without silvering, aluminum, sand-covered lettering, 58 trapezoidal boxes 1.9 m long, 39 cm and 43 cm wide and 30 cm in height.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Villejuif, FranceLocation to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officeMaterialsGlassSteelMaterials and TagsPublished on February 04, 2025Cite: "Villejuif Gustave Roussy Station / Dominique Perrault Architecture" 04 Feb 2025. ArchDaily. 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