Sambre quays and station square in Charleroi

Programme: Two projects with the same objective: improving the attractiveness of the city. - The requalification of the Sambre quays in the crossing of Charleroi with the aim of encouraging sustainable mobility, in particular in its access to the station and, in this context of infrastructure-obstacles, to recompose a landscape on the human scale. - The redevelopment of the station square to encourage a multi-purpose occupation and give it an identity dimension, the station as a "city entrance".

About: The transformation of the quays into a linear park creates a single landscape that connects the east-west crossing of the city center and organizes the interface between logistics infrastructures and urbanity. In practice, it is a question of : - "Decanalize" the river by transforming the concrete banks into natural banks, thus offering a perception of the river as well as better accessibility. - Extending the "grass carpet" over the greatest available width and doubling this green ribbon, inscribed in the ground plan, by a "tree line" inscribed in the elevation: The park becomes a façade, a landscape foreground for the users of the urban bank. Beyond the function of transportation, the platforms will also become places of relaxation and meeting. The station esplanade is conceived as a unique place with the station as a reference edge and then, "in waves", the ground unfolds towards the Sambre. The layout of the flooring, the plantings and even the streetcar tracks are part of a movement that gradually deforms to fit into the lines of force of the landscape induced by the linear park, the relief and the axes of mobility. The light grey concrete floor is structured by lines that expand to form "lenses", which in the same intervention manage runoff water, introduce a certain permeability, plantings and a graphic composition that sequences the urban space without conditioning the users' routes.