Client : SNCF Gare et Connexion
Architect : AREP
Structure & Envelope Engineer : HDA
Overhang : 55 m
The SNCF station architectural department appointed HDA as technical designers and engineers for their new Lorient TGV station.
The scope involves the structural and facade design for the main passenger building, a footbridge, platform shelters as well as a bus shelter and other ancillary buildings.
The visible structure is primarily in wood, with concrete foundations and superstructure for an adjacent office building destined to provide space for a post office and station management.
The profile of the building is inspired by traditional sailing and fishing boats of the Brittany region. Sculpted timber framing, analogous to boat ribs, adapt in profile according to the building shape structural conditions, providing a distinctive visual identity. Tall glazed facades of the building shelter users from the wind and rain, and provide views through the building. A deceptively simple, but slightly tapered form, actually requires subtle variations to all of the structural framing and facade elements. Construction strategies for all components were developed taking into account practical and economic solutions, using repetitive key details and subtle adaptation of the member profiles.
