Written by Elsa Brown: Architects ECDM, compare the surface of their recently completed RATP Bus Center, in Thias, France, to a LEGO. And, although its bold colors do recall a children’s game, the project is one of thoughtful design for serious purpose. The center is located in the suburbs south of Paris, and controls all bus lines south and east of the city, meaning 300 buses and 800 drivers pass through it every day.

Combining notions of flux and movement with the minimalist starting point of a bus park, the architects constructed a “monolithic concrete slab” that appears to rise from the ground and coat the building, which is sheathed in Ductal®, a material that resembles asphalt. This use of material, “ensures a continuity of the ground from the road, to the skin of the façades, the suspended ceilings and the terrace rooftop without any rupture, proposing a merging between the building and its support to a point of confusion. The building has neither a beginning nor an end.” Just like the circuitous bus routes for which the center is origin, organizational locus and destination, all at once. Click Read More for additional information and photos.

ARCH DAILY ON RATP BUS CENTER
DESIGN BOOM ON RATP BUS CENTER
ECDM WEBSITE

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