A resilient railway station in the face of climate change.

With a forecourt transformed into an urban square and  a 4,200 sqm green space, Nice Airport’s future garden station  is designed to be the first bioclimatic sation. Located near the brand new Nice Saint-Augustin bus station, it will be at the heart of a multimodal transport hub offering all connections. Studies for the future Nice Airport station have been carried out with a view to climate change resilience (risk of flooding/havy rain, adaptation to wind and heat islands/drought). The station’s architecture has been designed to adapt to these three risks: elevated station, aerodynamic roof shape, large garden  and natural cooling island. The future station and its multimodal transport hub will  be nestled under a 6,000 sqm bioclimatic canopy equipped with photovoltaic panels, linking the two sides of the neighbourhood and unifying the rail and road stations. Its design is based on an innovative approach that integrates all the major environmental challenges facing the French Riviera by the end of the century. It will regulate the temperature and light in the station to make it more comfortable for users. Designed as an ecosystem at the heart of the city, the station will have 600 sqm of comfortable waiting areas opening onto its garden and around 1,500 sqm of services and shops for travellers and local residents. This project, which is characteristic  of the necessary adaptation of our railway infrastructure,  will be completed in 2028.

AREP Group's mission:

Station design, landscape design, engineering, environmental strategy

Environmental metrics and solutions – EMC2B:

Energy

•   Reduced thermally treated surface area: only 21%

•   Production of 450 MWh of solar-powered energy (car park + canopy)

Materials

•   Bio-based materials : 286 tonnes of timber for the facades (car park + passenger building)

•   Re-used materials : include 0.65 tonnes of ballast for the furniture and retention basins: 990 kg of solid oak and 127.66 kg of railroad ties

Carbon

•   Installation of 40 EV charging points, with 157 spaces ftted for future use

•  Creation of a 480 spaces bicycle park

Climate

•   Bioclimatic features for summer comfort: south-facing façades ftted

•   Premises ftted with natural ventilation openings and a high-albedo site [0.39] to offset the urban heat island effect

•   Protected outdoor spaces : creation of a canopy and planting  of 150 trees to maximise shading (59% of the outdoor areas shaded)

•   Indoor and outdoor sheltered areas: shaded and ventilated passenger walkways from the station entrance to the platforms

•   18% of the premises will be cooled during heatwaves

•   Creation of storm water basins and sheltered areas

•  1500  m3 rainwater retention capacity

Biodiversity

•  226 sqm of planted swales and 990 sqm of green platforms

•  Tall fruit trees: 330

•  Percentage of green and / or pervious surfaces: 31

•  Number of trees per hectare: 21