Art & Architecture

The design of this stylish and good-looking station favours oblique rather than right angles, to add visual interest to the space. The trainroom is built in tunnel, projecting out from a tall central volume that serves as the transept. This volume is a curious irregular shape, a sort of chamfered rhomboid. The upper part of the volume’s walls, in exposed concrete, are stepped upward toward the ceiling, where an oculus-like opening hosts air and light shafts.

The crossover it contains also has an irregular angular shape, with a large triangular waiting area at the near end, and it leads to staircases jutting out at odd, asymmetrical angles. At the near side, one of the staircases to the Côte-Vertu platform passes obliquely behind the triangular waiting area, while the other leads straight down toward the platform before turning and passing behind a screen to reach it. At the far end, the crossover ends with one staircase that juts into a stairwell built out from the volume, before doubling back at about a 165° angle to reach the platform. The second, the only one of the four staircases located within the main open space, descends rather theatrically down the oblique wall.

This staircase and the wall below the triangular waiting area spread outward, creating a broad central area on each platform. This part of the volume faces the east wall, whose lower portion forms a tall, flat, uniform expanse pierced by the curve of the tunnel vault which, unusually, continues all the way down to the floor. The crossover and staircases offer a variety of interesting viewpoints upon the striking architecture.

However, the main visual point of interest in the volume is a large concrete sculpture entitled Un Arbre dans le parc, which rises some 13 metres up from the Côte-Vertu platform to tower over the crossover. This work is both decorative and functional, as the sculpture forms a structural column and each “branch” contains a light fixture.

Most of the station is clad in rough, pale grey concrete brick; the central volume is accented with large trapezoidal forms in turquoise-coloured tiles, as well as sapphire blue tiled circles, reminiscent of the circles at Peel. The sections of the trainroom built in tunnel are walled with bricks in elegant, cool shades of dark grey and sapphire blue, forming horizontal stripes that repeat the movement of the trains. The floors are in dark grey tiles; the platform benches are in dark grey granite with stainless steel backs.

From the crossover level, a fairly wide stair and escalator well leads up to the low-ceilinged ticket hall, whose irregular shape is similar to that of the main volume. It forms a U-turn between the top of the stairs from the trainroom and the bottom of those to the surface. The walls are is dotted by sapphire blue circles, square panels of grey and blue tiles set diagonally, and segments of wall clad similarly to the platforms.

A small glass and concrete headhouse, accompanied by a large concrete light shaft shaped like the frustum of a cone and admitting light into the main volume, top off this attractive and sophisticated station.