Un nuovo spazio pubblico: la stazione di Clichy-Montfermeil a Parigi

The new station, designed by the EMBT studio, is located on the border between two suburban areas, Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil, where however the public space has little structure and is devoid of designed functional elements. The community of inhabitants suff ers from a condition of social and cultural marginality and consists mainly of first-generation French citizens from North Africa, whose average age is significantly lower than the average in Paris. The EMBT office is working on a project that actively involves this community, embracing its requests and expectations. The project suggests the creation of a new identity for this place based on enhancing the cultural origins of its citizens, and becomes an opportunity for building a new public space. The square has an extension of approximately 5000 square meters, with an equal surface area of green spaces in the surrounding areas. The canopy supported by thin metal columns, reminiscent of the slender trunks of birch-trees, screens the entrance to the station to the northeast behind the volume of shops. To the west, it covers the service building and continues to extend over much of the square. The station is divided into three levels. The project for the new Clichy - Montfermeil station thus becomes one of the most significant elements to tie the suburbs of Paris together with a new ring that actively and consciously connects them because, Benedetta Tagliabue reminds us, freedom is involvement.