Nichtoffener Wettbewerb | 06/2012
Tour de l'Esplanade
1. Preis
DPA Dominique Perrault Architecture
Architektur
sonstige Fachplanung
ARCHITRAM architecture et urbanisme sa
Architektur
Landschaftsarchitektur
TGA-Fachplanung
Brandschutzplanung
AB Ingénieurs - Amsler Bombeli et Associés SA
Tragwerksplanung
Fassadenplanung
Erläuterungstext
150 years after the first train’s passing in Fribourg’s downtown, the Swiss Federal railways (CCF) have started the urban requalification project for the site of the former Pilettes Station. From 2015, a 60 meters high glass totem will be placed in the skyline of Fribourg, standing atop its 18 floors as a landmark of the hyper-downtown, in the midst of change.
Already in the past, the arrival of the railways had contributed to the transformation of the city, which had been gradually developed beyond its fortified surroundings on upper terraces, on top of the lower city and the historic districts.
Taking root on the esplanade of the former station, in which the railway activity stopped more than 80 years ago, the architect - urban planner sculpts a figurehead whose north-west side, upright, silent and completely smooth on the railway’s side, contrasts with the urban south-east side which, thanks to a set of corbellings and balconies, manifolds the exchanges with the hyper-downtown, the medieval town, the meandering Sarine River to finally reveal the beauty of the Fribourg Pre-Alps relief.
The superimposition of 4 volumes, with different length and height, provides the life of the tower while making easier the reading of the functions inside.
However, it’s a mixed-use tower, gathering at the same place some housing, offices, business center, shops and commercial premises. Dominique Perrault, thanks to the consistent thickness of the tower and the homogenous materials of the façade whose the vertical development provides the continuity of the volumes, sets up on the esplanade a figurehead with an unseen unity.
Powerful and compact, the totem of the esplanade, with its base set back from the street, contributes to the new urbanity of the hyper-downtown, by maintaining the permeability and the exchanges of the city with the building of the former station which is today a new cultural centre.
If today the esplanade of the train station is a huge unqualified void, not easily accessible and hidden by the urban barrier formed by the current bike-park, Perrault with a gesture that he masters well, buries the parking lot under the esplanade and invites through stairs the passenger to take over this new place of urban intensity.
Here again Perrault qualifies the void to organize the city. The rehabilitated public space creates a dialogue between the new city and its history by reintroducing the outline of the former Pilettes Station in the centre of Fribourg hyper-downtown.
site area 5 000m²
built area 13 000m²
built volume 6 000m³ (superstructures)
tower’s high 61,5 meters
number of levels 18
beginning of conceptual studies november 2011
estimated beginning of construction 2013
estimated construction period 2 years
program construction of a mixed tower 13 000 m² ca.
commercial area 1,220 m² SBP
office 5,990 m² SBP
business center et panoramic restaurant 1,820 m² SBP
housing 3,680 m² SBP
Already in the past, the arrival of the railways had contributed to the transformation of the city, which had been gradually developed beyond its fortified surroundings on upper terraces, on top of the lower city and the historic districts.
Taking root on the esplanade of the former station, in which the railway activity stopped more than 80 years ago, the architect - urban planner sculpts a figurehead whose north-west side, upright, silent and completely smooth on the railway’s side, contrasts with the urban south-east side which, thanks to a set of corbellings and balconies, manifolds the exchanges with the hyper-downtown, the medieval town, the meandering Sarine River to finally reveal the beauty of the Fribourg Pre-Alps relief.
The superimposition of 4 volumes, with different length and height, provides the life of the tower while making easier the reading of the functions inside.
However, it’s a mixed-use tower, gathering at the same place some housing, offices, business center, shops and commercial premises. Dominique Perrault, thanks to the consistent thickness of the tower and the homogenous materials of the façade whose the vertical development provides the continuity of the volumes, sets up on the esplanade a figurehead with an unseen unity.
Powerful and compact, the totem of the esplanade, with its base set back from the street, contributes to the new urbanity of the hyper-downtown, by maintaining the permeability and the exchanges of the city with the building of the former station which is today a new cultural centre.
If today the esplanade of the train station is a huge unqualified void, not easily accessible and hidden by the urban barrier formed by the current bike-park, Perrault with a gesture that he masters well, buries the parking lot under the esplanade and invites through stairs the passenger to take over this new place of urban intensity.
Here again Perrault qualifies the void to organize the city. The rehabilitated public space creates a dialogue between the new city and its history by reintroducing the outline of the former Pilettes Station in the centre of Fribourg hyper-downtown.
site area 5 000m²
built area 13 000m²
built volume 6 000m³ (superstructures)
tower’s high 61,5 meters
number of levels 18
beginning of conceptual studies november 2011
estimated beginning of construction 2013
estimated construction period 2 years
program construction of a mixed tower 13 000 m² ca.
commercial area 1,220 m² SBP
office 5,990 m² SBP
business center et panoramic restaurant 1,820 m² SBP
housing 3,680 m² SBP