Gare des tramways

previous state

Squeezed between the Mediterranean and the chain of mountains running along the Côte d’Azure, Nice has great difficulty in finding space for its large-scale infrastructure. To the north of the city there is a residential estate where big housing blocks are crammed between hills and a spectacular spaghetti junction. Thanks to the presence of the junction, the neighbourhood suffered the effects of noise pollution and was badly connected with the rest of the city.

aim of the intervention

In 2000, the Nice City Council gave its support to an intervention that envisaged taking advantage of the residual spaces near the roads running into the junction in order to construct a transport hub. The main aim of the project was to discourage drivers using the roads from entering the city by private car. The transport hub was to offer them the alternative of easy parking for their vehicles and a tram service into the city centre. However, the transport hub, which was also to include a centre of tramway maintenance, was not only envisaged as infrastructure that would bring benefits on the metropolitan scale, but that would also make a considerable contribution in improving the quality of life of the residential estate in which it was to be located.

description

Inaugurated eight years later, the transport hub has a very complex geometry that fits into the curve described by the highway so as to make the best possible use of the limited space available. The tramlines enter the complex passing beneath one of the roads giving access to the spaghetti junction and then winding upwards in an ascending arc, along which the tramline’s terminal station and a large maintenance shed are located.

The station building is low and partly below the ground so that it does not obstruct the views of the nearby residential buildings. It is covered with a transitable roof garden which, like a belvedere, offers magnificent views of the city in profile against the sea. This terrace is public space that is permanently open to the residents of the neighbourhood and that gives access to a straight-sided tower housing a social-cum-cultural centre. Generously endowed with natural light and ventilation, the station has a good thermal inertia because it is partly underground, while the roof garden acts as insulation against heat and cold.

The maintenance shed has been constructed next to the road in order to constitute a sound barrier between the cars and the residential estate. It is topped by an open-air car park equipped with pergolas that protect that cars from the sun and cool the spaces of the maintenance shed below. The shed is lit and ventilated by a large gap separating it from the station and that also functions as a pedestrian thoroughfare connecting the complex with the city.

assessment

The new infrastructure benefits the whole city by reducing its traffic density and encouraging the use of public transport. At the same time, far from creating problems for the neighbourhood where it is located, the transport hub does it a great service in several different ways. First, it brings it new density by filling an empty residual space that had no particular use. Second, it intensifies the area by equipping it with a tram station, with a social-cum-cultural centre and a belvedere with privileged views. Again, it protects it from harmful contact with the road while also connecting it with the remaining urban fabric. In brief, the formal and functional complexity of the infrastructure considerably enriches the residential estate, endowing it with a new identity.

David Bravo Bordas, architect