French studio Dominique Perrault Architecture has dug a deep cylindrical shaft to house Paris’ Villejuif-Gustave Roussy metro station, which is topped with a transparent roof to allow light to enter from above.
Dominique Perrault Architecture designed the station in the capital’s southern suburb of Villejuif, which forms part of the Grand Paris Express metro, a new rapid transit network linking the outskirts of the city.
Instead of designing a building above ground, the station appears to “sink” into a vast well – an effect created by tunnelling 50 metres into the subsoil, creating one of the deepest infrastructure projects in France.
“The sky of this inverted skyscraper is simply the ground level of the city,” said studio founder Dominique Perrault.
“Natural light pours all the way down to the platforms located some 50 metres below. The sky is above the railways,” he added.
Villejuif-Gustave Roussy, which opened last month, is contained within a huge cylinder 70 metres in diameter.
Serving over 100,000 passengers daily, the station includes a series of galleries and balconies linked by footbridges and escalators, and integrates public spaces, shops and services on its first two levels.
From above ground, the station resembles a glass pavilion, with a helicoidal glass roof composed of three layers. This transparent lid allows light to penetrate the void below, challenging a passenger’s understanding of what it means to be underground.
“The station being anchored in the deep whilst allowing light and air to pour in offers users the opposite experience,” said Perrault.
“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 that engages all the senses.”
The roof over the Villejuif-Gustave Roussy station is composed of three layers and features a central hub – the “eye” – at its centre. A central circular roof made of plastic protects the station from rain while allowing outside air to circulate laterally.
Two other roofs composed of strips of spiralled stainless-steel mesh are placed at different heights, covering the station like “two great marquees” signalling the station’s presence and protecting passengers from the sun.
The interior layout, lighting and acoustics, designed by Dominique Perrault Architecture associate Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, has been constructed with a range of materials including concrete, glass and stainless steel in a range of textures.
Villejuif-Gustave Roussy is located in the ZAC Campus Grand Parc, an urban campus for research that also includes residential developments. The station also improves links to the Institut Gustave Roussy, a leading cancer hospital.
It is also hoped to serve as a cultural landmark, incorporating public art from Chilean artist Iván Navarro, who has created an immersive visual experience with a starry sky of neon lights.
More broadly, the Grand Paris Express is playing a role in the urban transformation of greater Paris with a network of over 200 kilometres of automated lines and 68 new stations improving connections between the suburbs and the city centre. With 42 stations within 800 metres of city-designated disadvantaged areas, it has been billed as a way of combatting social inequality by improving access to the city centre.
Project backers the Société des Grands Projets chose acclaimed architects to design nine “emblematic” stations on the network, including Kengo Kuma’s Saint-Denis Pleyel Station, which completed last year in northern Paris.
Other metro stations architecture recently featured on Dezeen include a beach-informed transit hub by Chetwoods and J&A in Shenzhen and the King Abdullah Financial District Metro Station that Zaha Hadid Architects decorated with geometric perforations.
The photography is by Michel Denancé unless stated otherwise.
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