In order to create sustainable equipment that will survive both the passing of the years and future developments in the city, the project for the new bus station proposes to address each of these problematics individually via: the absolute division of transport flows, spatial continuity and an interdependence between each constructed entity, the reduction of the scale of the buildings to create a complex on a human scale, as well as the establishment of a landscaped and ecological environment.
The scale of the site and its geometry constitute the primary constraints of the project. The sixty hectares in length of this parcel of land, naturally necessitates consideration for the elongated volume. This provision is further reinforced by avoiding the north-south orientation in order to yield thermal comfort and luminousity, and to maximise the east-west axis in order to benefit from the prevailing winds and the cooling down of the complex during hot weather. A clear division between the volume of the station and the network of bus platforms is thus operating according to identified principles of guidance. The constructed bar rises back to the souk, densifying the site using a rational approach. It opens onto the principle artery in the vicinity, facing it, and therefore benefitting from good visibility, inviting the buses and users to enter the site. This bar is rapidly revealed however as not to scale vis-a-vis and in relation to the users and establishes an overly abrupt dichotomy between full and empty, station and parking. This binary relationship not being able to energise the entire site, the volume is divided into three distinct volumes, reducing the visual impact of the building in order to benefit from a greater relationship to the human scale at the site.
