A/ZC Wins Four Metro Stations in Rennes, France

French practice A/ZC, Atelier Zündel & Cristea Architects has recently won Lot 05 of the Rennes Metro Station competition and will be designing the stations St Germain, Mabilais, Puits Mauger and Gares. Completion of these four new stations for the capital of the French region of Brittany is expected for 2015.

Project Description from the Architects:

At the start, we wanted to define for ourselves what a metro station is: it acts as a marker along the metro line’s trajectory, an easily accessible public space with simple and fluid pathways, clear and intelligible signage. Our project attempts to render concrete and visible this new conception of the metro’s urban significance by concentrating on intelligibility and on the quality of the station’s space. The complexity of a work, whether architectural or technical, creates within the user a certain difficulty in comprehending, grasping, or analyzing his or her encounter with it. While complexity most often arises from a certain rigor and a high degree of organization, if manifested in confusion, not to say in chaos, it fails, after analysis, to explicitly express its idea, or a clear line. Architecture has changed little over time and it remains essential for the architect to introduce into complex projects ideas that are universal, simple, and clear.

Project Details:

Status: Competition 2010 (Completion expected 2015)
Client: SEMTCAR
Architects: Atelier Zündel & Cristea 
Consultants: ARCHITRAM
Program: Rennes metro station

Images courtesy of Atelier Zündel & Cristea.