An architectural catalyst
Two covered halls cross through the building and offer a view into the digital campus for pedestrians as they pass through, which promotes interaction and builds a strong urban link in a fast-changing part of the city. ‘Our digital incubator project is designed to act like an architectural catalyst. We have brought two major creative energies together in one innovative and lively site, which blends together daring and inventive 19th-century engineering with the boundless creativity of a new generation’, concludes the architect, Jean-Michel Wilmotte. The digital campus has already become a popular place in the city.
An architectural feat
In 1927, in response to a boom in freight traffic, the Compagnie du Paris-Orléans decided to build a new freight station service next to Austerlitz station in Paris. The architectural project that they selected was designed by a company based in Limousin, whose technical director was none other than Eugène Freyssinet, the engineer and inventor of prestressed concrete. The building he created is an architectural gem in terms of structural engineering, which measures 310 metres long and up to 72 metres across. It is composed of three parallel naves featuring cylindrical arches that are thinner than 5 cm in some places along the roof. It also has overhangs that are suspended over the building’s sides, which act as a counterweight and contribute to the overall structural finesse.
Accentuating the structure
Sernam, a former subsidiary of the SNCF, operated out of the building up until 2006, when the hall was abandoned. For a time, its future was uncertain: there was talk of demolition, building a new court of appeal, or re-purposing the building as an event centre. In the end, Halle Freyssinet was listed as a historic monument in 2012, after mounting pressure from historic building preservation societies, who managed to persuade government employees of its innovative characteristics. The Halle Freyssinet was then bought from the SNCF by the City of Paris, which sold it to the French businessman Xavier Niel, who had plans to turn it into the world’s largest digital business incubator. With specifications to leave the original concrete exposed, this conversion project led by Jean-Michel Wilmotte – accompanied by the manufacturers Cider, Ligne Roset, AGC Glass France and Groupe Delagrave – was also required to accentuate the structure without breaking its spatial continuity, open the building up to the outside and provide safe, covered walkways for the city’s pedestrians.
Multi-functional spaces
In response to these impressive specifications, the building is divided into three distinct parts. A community area, which extends out from an immense concrete forecourt, where people can meet and share digital ideas, including a ‘Fab Lab’ and an auditorium and conference rooms. The central aisle comprises the multi-functional and community spaces, while the side aisles are occupied by removable mezzanines supported by steel frames, which house all of the project’s work areas. The remaining section houses a 24-hour restaurant service.
Memory of place
The fifty steel shipping containers, which are used as meeting rooms hint at the site’s former use as a freight terminal for trains and trucks. As do the railway track outline that can still be seen in the central aisle of the hall and the ‘Corail’ passenger rail cars parked at the southern end. The choice of materials (steel and glass) and the colours (black and white) are limited to the strict minimum. The spandrels and end views of the longitudinal façades, as well as the two ‘pediment’ façades and the side walls of the public walkways (crossing through the building) are made of glass and allow natural light to flood into the workspaces.