While the aim of the competition was to build a tower that would be a symbolic first building of a new development around the train station of Toulouse, this project takes the opposite approach and proposes a lower urban destination, with a strong identity and visibility.

As such, the project could propose a more flexible building in terms of programme and articulate the scale of the ramblas around the media library and the train station with an overlap of strong architectural destinations. The public venue of the co-working space on the ground floor connects the crossroads and the bridge to the entrance of the train station, while the venues of the hotel in the upper levels propose balconies towards the city. At the top, the atrium of the dwellings becomes an outside space inside the building.

The construction of such a project close to the Canal du Midi is also the opportunity to reveal the quality of this Unesco heritage site in the city. The bow of this building becomes an urban figure, open towards the water through an overlap of terraces and winter gardens, all related to the specific programme of the building.

Through its dimensions, shape, materiality and location, this building is meant to dialogue with the history of Toulouse and to propose an iconic but strong contextual project. This building also relates to the southern climate of this region by its voluptuous façade made of shiny ceramic modules acting as sun and wind screens. This canvas plays with the perception of the façade from a distance, turning the complexity of the programmatic overlap into a singular shape in the city, a contemporary landmark like the bell tower of the Toulouse basilica.

• Location

  Toulouse, France

• Client

  Europalia

• Project

  Competition

• In collaboration with

  PPA architectures/Scalene/CVA

• 51N4E team

  Johan Anrys, Freek Persyn, Matthieu Moreau, Paul Steinbrück, Yann Gueguen, Guillem Pons, Laura Villeret

• 51N4E involvement

  full process

• Consultants

  Betem, Bollinger + Grohmann, Le Sommer, Bureau, Veritas, CSD, Tisseyre + Associés, AE75

• Programme

  Housing, hotel, co-working spaces, public spaces

• Built surface

  21.500 m²

• Construction costs

  45.000.000 €

• Image credits

  51N4E