The planned site for the new SNCF Réseau training campus, in Saint-Priest, is a long strip of bare ground alongside a set of tracks, interrupted over more than 500 meters by a freight transport hangar.

The industrial-logistical fabric that makes up the urban context of the project makes possible a strong and individual architectural expression. The architecture must assume the role of giving a signal at the scale of the territory, a recognisable silhouette and a memorable landmark, in an environment where the built environment is organised in a purely functionalist way, where units of space are measured in hectares and the scale is that of transport (road or rail).

The site has as its specificity the fact that it is divided into two plots, removed from one another by more than 500 m and connected by a thin strip along the tracks. Our urban, architectural and landscaping proposal therefore endeavours to seek a unity between these spaces and create the conditions for a harmonious and pragmatic integration based on the existing environment. The strong horizontal lines of the tracks and the industrial structures that shape the territory and are oriented along an East-West axis along the tracks are used as the backbone of the urban project. The Rue Pierre Semard is the leitmotif of the operation; the sites develop from it and the different entities that make up the training campus are attached to it. To the east, a respectful dialogue is established with the small residential buildings and community gardens adjacent to the site. This dialogue is accomplished essentially by the landscaping project, which prolongs the simple and effective alignments of trees planted in patterns along the two sites.

The result of our work at the urban level is the characterisation of the Rue Pierre Semard as the new address of the training campus, which in turn provides a renewed identity and dynamism to the street.

The “Village de Halles”

Our architectural concept uses the imagery of railway sheds as spaces par excellence related to the railways. These large structures form the DNA of the stations and transit spaces; they alone have the ability to protect whilst preserving freedom, to welcome and create euphoria, to fulfil the most demanding technical functions while being endlessly reusable and modulable. We feel that they alone are capable of both entering into dialogue with a strong industrial environment and engendering spaces that are on a human scale, welcoming and warm.