RETHINKING PARKING
At the intersection of avenue du Rhin and rue Alfred Kastler, îlot-I, fronted by Danube Vert, marks the entrance to the Strasbourg eco-neighbourhood and raise questions about changes in transport modes and the future role of the car. The eco-neighbourhood has lofty ambitions: no parking in public space but two silo car parks located on either side of the district. Moreover, no assigned parking spaces, but dynamic space sharing between visitors, daytime residents (workers) and night-time residents (inhabitants), which creates a point of urban dynamism, encourages green travel by bicycle or tram, and reduces the acquisition cost of the apartments.
DANUBE VERT, FROM ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING TO INTRIGUE
COSA is therefore designing a container for these vehicles, to give back the sidewalks to strollers and make its own contribution to virtuous city making. The silo car park plays a part as a cog in this mechanism. Its architecture is a frugal assembly of concrete clad in steel and enhanced with glass. The interplay of reflections and transparencies, the beauty of the mechanical combinations of finish, form a repeated pattern. Architectural engineering combines with intrigue, such as the signage that gives touches of colour to every level, or the roof where the combination of clear pink and blue generate surprise. The structure, in principle exclusively functional, acquires a distinctive identity.
A building measuring 50 metres by 33 metres rises half-storey by half-storey at the intersection of avenue du Rhin and rue Alfred Kastler. The entrances are distributed between the centre of the block for local people, and avenue du Rhin and rue de l’Elbe where the vehicle ramp is located. The ramp leads to a basement level that extends as far as avenue du Rhin. A main core of vertical passages serves the structure, combined with a basement access stairway on rue d’Elbe. The body of the building is left as raw concrete. It allows in natural ventilation and light and leaves open views to the city and to the Rhine.
Tomorrow, îlot-i
In îlot-I, the other projects continue.
COSA will deliver a mixed apartment and office building, with an interplay of recesses and terraces, a combination of raw and matrixed concrete that recalls the Danube eco-neighbourhood’s industrial past.
The agency is also developing the landscape within the block to accommodate shared uses: large, well-equipped picnic tables, children’s games, plant boxes, a theatre of greenery.
