An emblematic station of the Réseau du Grand Paris Express, owing as much to the role of infrastructure in developing the territory, as to the interconnexion 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.

From “monument” to “emblematic” station

In this case, emblematic is not a synonym for formal demonstrativeness or design eccentricity. Architecture confuses and blends the outside and the inside, the infrastructural and the urban. It extends uses and views between above and below. The Villejuif IGR station is not a metro station, nor is it a monument, like the great stations of the 19th century, recognizable by their main facade, and severely marking the break with the public space. The Villejuif station is generous, stretching out, loosening up and seeping into the fabric of the territory to mobilize the elements available in the surrounding area. This “ architectonic link ” allows to reconcile the vertical dynamics of access to the transport network with the horizontal movements of the city. The project is an interface project that transgresses the traditional frontality of architecture by blurring the threshold between open and enclosed space, blurring the boundaries between the city and the station. Architecture doesn't oppose the city; it doesn't confront it, it doesn't oppose any facade or wall.