JDS Architects have just shared with us their first French project in the city of Lille. The Euralille Youth Centre is a 6,000 sqm project that includes a youth hostel, offices and a kindergarten. More images and information after the break.
Over the past twenty years Lille has become a European hub; a destination for business and congress, a great place to study and live and also a tourist destination. It is a city with a turbulent history of conquest and reconquest, a heritage as an important medieval city and later the industrial capital. It is this history, the unique and striking presence of remnants of ramparts of the citadel, which the project seeks to mention.
Our project emerges from the idea of creating an urban catalyst, accommodating three distinct programmes on a triangular site. By placing a program in each point of the triangle we offer maximum privacy while allowing them a closeness and continuity of space, organized around a garden, like a cloister of calm in the center of the city. The lifting of the mass of the programme at the corners illuminates and activates the adjacent public spaces and creates a continuity from outside to inside the building.
Architects: JDS Architects Location: Lille, France Project Team: Antoine Allard, Renaud Pereira, Sandra Fleischmann, Weronica Wojcik, Felix Luong, Kamile Malinauskaite, Lea Fournier, Adrien Mans Competition Team: Julien De Smedt, Barbara Wolff, Henning Stüben, Renaud Pereira, Heechan Park, Francisco Villeda, Wouter Dons, Felix Luong, David Dominguez, Leonora Daly, Priscilla Girelli, Marion Julien, Edna Lueddecke Client: SAEM Euralille Collaborators: Agence Franck Boutté Consultants, EGIS, SL2EC Budget: 11,400,000 EUR Size: 6,000 sqm Status: Construction starts 2012 Images: Courtesy of JDS Architects
