Architecture

Capabilities: feasibility, architectural studies, cost control, site supervision, contract administration

Though its ties with the world of rail, AREP can boast its unique experience in creating spaces used intensively by the general public. Its thinking in terms of function and use reconciles the constraints imposed by large numbers of people and individual perceptions, or, to put it another way, from crowd management to individual well-being.

Management of user flows
The design of major public amenities such as railway stations or museums is related to what might be termed "interior urbanism", to the extent that such places are highly public and open to the surrounding urban environment. Often interconnected with other infrastructure, they are erected in urban centres or central locations subject to the constraints inherent in organising user flows.

Personal comfort
Designing a building comes down to creating a tailor-made envelope to house one or more functions and to meet the essential need for mobility. Functionality and well-being go hand-in-hand. The notion of comfort is grasped in a multi-criteria approach that brings different strands of engineering into play. To be comfortable and economical, the built envelope must be tailored to its environment, and in the first place to the climate.

The Cultural dimension
Building is also a way of producing signs and generating meaning. As the expression of a society or of a social structure, the building embodies a supremely important cultural dimension. Human societies and groups are reflected in it and recognise themselves in it. The space and its fabric are both coded and an understanding of those codes is essential for building. An analysis of contextual data provides the guiding components of the design. The presence of an existing building or of heritage factors is seen as a valuable asset.

Historical contribution
Creations from scratch also aspire to becoming heritage buildings. They embody a cultural, symbolic dimension that is all the greater as such creations are, apparently at least, freed from all constraints. The underlying architectural question in all building projects focuses on how the space can be revealed or enriched. The relevance of the project goes beyond mimesis and insertion to encourage creation. More than just a question of style, the idea is to write a new page in a site’s history.