Social Condenser
This Babel project is a condensator of urban and professionnal activities, situated in the continuity of the Euralille district planned by OMA, along the urban boulevard linking the differents communes of the Lille metropolis. This project questions the fate and identity of ring roads, typical of European cities. Such ring roads consitute important reserves of buildable land although they ususally host random low density activities rejected from city centrers. Babel is a proposal to build more than 60 000sqm while conserving a campus-like condition of the ring road, with new free-floating objects. The shape of the building is that of a coliseum, a circular amphitheatre, each slice of it containing a different fonction : offices, dwellings, hotel, shops, kindergarten... A miniature city at the border of the historical city.
