Stéphan Dessoy & Frédéric Lourtie & Thomas Faes
Stéphan Dessoy & Frédéric Lourtie & Thomas Faes
Liège then opted for a contemporary and optimistic perspective. Actually, the forty- metre high station would shroud the residential district, the “excessiveness” of this functional sculpture would disrupt the habits, literally shake the inhabitants and bring a new lease of life: “two entire blocks of buildings laid on the ground to stress a European acknowledgment and to give back its dignity to the principality which was so wealthy and so famous a few centuries ago…”.
The project stretches between the gigantic façade of the station and the convention centre (the two empty blocks). It is several hundreds metres long and wide.
The biggest difficulty was to find a balance between the European dimension, a centre both of economic development (administrative district) and culture (convention centre), but also a neighbourhood. It was decided to keep all the existing buildings with an economic function and to add more activities to these.
Throughout the project we are offered a great deal of different atmospheres thanks to a new system of interior islets. It slips along the station hotel, threads its way through the shops (street level), extends in a particular treatment of the street, stretches on a large paving stone open between buildings to the floors and public functions, then to the ground floor, and it eventually disperses towards the sporting area / function, the orientation table and the convention centre.
It is a backbone connecting the station to the vital functions of the town through an irregular rhythm of penetrating and perspective lines…
SCHUNCK cannot guarantee the correctness of content and expression. The participants themselves are responsible for their entries. The copyright of the projects underlies to the authors, any reproduction or use of the shown material is strictly forbidden.