Archinect - News

BIG unveils mass timber transit hub design for Toulouse

2024-03-26T12:38:00-04:00

BIG has unveiled renderings for its new Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub project in Toulouse, France’s fourth largest city. The 129,000-square-foot building connects the city center to the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi and the Périole neighborhood and will be realized adjacent to the existing Gare Matabiau, which was first built in 1905.

The local studio A+ Architecture is also contributing to the project. The design is for a mass timber structure topped with a rose-colored folded roof replete with photovoltaics and finished in the same tone by a low-carbon concrete floor. Both of these reference the vernacular use of "foraine" brick architecture that is endemic to the southern departmental capital.

Rendering courtesy BIG

Rising exponentially to a height of seven stories, users will access the building on one end and be greeted by shops and a subterranean connector to the metro station underneath. Further on, floors one through six include 71,000 square feet of offices for the region...

Europe's first fully autonomous bus is set to carry passengers in Toulouse

2021-12-02T19:47:00-05:00

French start-up EasyMile is to be the first transport provider to run a fully autonomous vehicle on a public road in Europe. The company has been authorised to run a driverless bus at the Oncopole medical campus in Toulouse, in partnership with French engineer Alstom.

The bus will operate at “Level 4,” meaning no human attendant will be on board. The authorization was granted by France’s Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Ecological Transition, on advice of the Minister of the Interior and local authorities. The bus arrives ahead of the implementation of the final regulatory framework allowing the circulation of autonomous vehicles on public roads in France, scheduled for September 2022.

The company will utilize its EZ10 people mover, an electric vehicle with PV-enhanced charging. It can carry up to 15 passengers. The service at Oncopole has been active since March and is situated on a 600-meter mixed-traffic route that also hosts cyclists, pedestrians, and cars. It will transition to being fully driverless in the coming months.

The project is part of the SAM (Safety and Acceptability of Autonomous Driving and Mobility) project, a French national-scale initiative to develop autonomous vehicles and deploy them on open roads.

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OMA completes new Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Center

2020-09-28T15:16:00-04:00

The city of Toulouse in Southern France recently completed MEETT, its brand new Exhibition and Convention Center designed by OMA / Chris van Duijn.

Combining a convention center, exhibition halls, a multi-function event hall, a parking structure for 3,000 cars, and a transportation hub with a new tram station, bus stop, and cycling facility, the enormous complex measures 155,000 square meters (over 1.6 million square feet), making it the third largest of its kind in France, outside of Paris.

Photograph by Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.

"The masterplan of MEETT has been conceived as an active strip — ‘une bande active’ — forming a physical border between urban development and countryside, with the ambition of becoming the central spine for an integrated development of the city and the countryside," explains OMA's project description. "The program of the exhibition and convention centre is organized into three parallel bands: an [....

Daniel Libeskind to design spiraling garden tower and new East Thiers Station in France

2017-03-23T18:36:00-04:00

It's a double-win for Studio Daniel Libeskind, who was recently selected to design two mixed-use projects in France: the Occitanie Tower in Toulouse and the East Thiers Train Station in Nice. The projects unveil a new development strategy for both cities that was set forth by commercial real estate firm Compagnie de Phalsbourg.

As Toulouse's first skyscraper, the Occitanie Tower will take over the former site of the Gare Matabiau postal sorting center in the city's evolving business district. The “curvaceous” tower will be a 150-meter-tall glass structure wrapped in a spiraling “ribbon” of vertical gardens (designed by landscape architect Nicolas Gilsoul) that will start from street level up to the 40th floor — a reference to the Canal du Midi that winds through the city, according to the architects.

Occitanie Tower, Toulouse. Rendering by MORPH.

Occitanie Tower, Toulouse. Rendering by LUXIGON.

The scheme includes 11,000 square meters of office space, a Hilton hotel, 120 apartment units...

Mateo Arquitectura Starts Construction of Andromède Housing Blocks in Toulouse

2012-01-26T14:58:00-05:00

Construction work will shortly begin of the Mateo Arquitectura-designed housing blocks in the Andromède district of Toulouse, France, near the airport of Toulouse-Blagnac.

OMA to Design Parc des Expositions in Toulouse

2011-07-08T18:48:00-04:00

OMA has won the competition to design the new Parc des Expositions (PEX) in the innovation zone of Toulouse, in southern France. PEX is conceived as a new gateway to the city and will host exhibitions, conferences, and concerts.