The station in the Place de la Gare is the main hub of the new tram line promoted by Strasbourg’s local government in order to replace traditional forms of transport with other less contaminating ones. The tram line runs at a depth of 17 metres. Gaston Valente has divided the station into four levels. The upper two are organized around an empty central plaza, where two lines of trees have planted. (more…)

The subway station of Venissieux-Parilly is situated in a little urbanized suburb at the intersection of a number of important roads. The mixture of different geometric shapes forms a structure of concrete arches and vaults based on diagrams of energy transmission from the ground floor to the level of the platforms. (more…)

After centuries of distrust punctuated by prolonged military confrontations, the French and British were finally united by a mutual dislike of seasickness. The body of water that has separated the United Kingdom and France for the past 8000 years can be very rough, making ferry crossings sometimes unforgettable. But Britain’s unshakable belief in the importance of retaining what amounts to a moat for security reasons forced travellers into the air or kept them hanging over the rails as they crossed one of the world’s busier shipping lanes. (more…)

Auguste Perret came from a family of building contractors and trained as an architect in order to bring the profitable work of design within the capabilities of the family business. This background gave Perret an understanding of how buildings are actually made, far outstripping that of most architects of his time. His buildings have all the classical rigour of his architectural training, combined with the structural logic and technical mastery learned within his family firm. (more…)

This building is a crossroads: railroads, internal communication, channels between installations. The different elements are located at different levels: the viaducts on top, and underneath, successively, are the services relating to the terminal area, the internal transport system, the hall of the railroad station, and, finally, the platforms under the first floor, forming a trench with the viaducts for taxis. (more…)

The railroad station at the Lyons Airport in France is one of the buildings dating to the 1990s with which Spaniard Santiago Calatrava declared his intention of joining architecture’s first rank of shapemakers. With its two mighty wings, the station is in part an homage to Finnish architect Eero Saarinen’s bird-like TWA building at Kennedy International Airport in New York City; Calatrave frequently cites Saarinen as a key influence. (more…)