El Centre del Món

Perpignan, France

Photo © Nicolás Pinzón

Visualization © L35

Photo © Nicolás Pinzón

Architects: L35

Location: 35 Boulevard Saint-Assiscle, Perpignan, France
Year: 2011

The New Nuclei Area of the TGV [high speed train]station,which includes the multi-purpose complex (shopping centre, hotel and offices)is the element around which the municipal townplanning operation to revitalise Saint Assiscle revolves and makes the new station an intermodal centre of urban development and the new economic driving force of the city. This district is separated from the centre and its surroundings by the fracture caused by the railway line and the SNCF station.

The project is structured on a linear axis from the outline of the rail tracks that at ground level becomes a public space connecting with the city centre via a boulevard. The different buildings are on both sides of the axis and a large pergola joins them together in a complex headed by the sports facilities, the only isolated specific volume that acts as a new urban symbol.