NÎMES PONT-DU-GARD
A station in tune with its surroundings
- Client: SNCF Réseau / SNCF Gares & Connexions
- Project management: Gares & Connexions - AREP - SETEC - TERRITOIRES Landscape
- Surface area: 3 000 m²
- Exterior area: 20.6 ha
- Completion: 2019
Awards and prizes
- 2020 - Occitanie Sustainable Buildings - Silver level in the construction phase
- 2017 - BIM d'Argent
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Comfort, landscape and biodiversity form the three keystones of the Nîmes Pont-du-Gard project. The new multimodal hub is part of the Nîmes-Montpellier bypass and has been designed to both meet the users' needs and reduce the environmental impact of the station's operation.
Managing the environmental impact
The multimodal hub is located within an exceptional site. From the outset, ecodesign provided the obvious framework to help balance the objectives of the project and the "Bâtiments Durables Méditerranéens" (Sustainable Mediterranean Buildings) process emerged as the most fitting tool. This is neither a label nor a certification, but a benchmark of environmental performance focusing on the impact of materials, biodiversity protection, thermal comfort, and water management.
Blending seamlessly into the landscape
The architectural project builds on the components of the landscape in order to ensure continuity between the building and the surrounding vegetation. Because of its transparency, the building blends seamlessly into the environment while its glazed façades reveal the internal layout, as well as the connections and vertical circulations. Landscaped passageways guide pedestrians to the platforms.
Achieving year-round thermal comfort
Ensuring comfort and energy performance is key in a region where the mistral can blow fiercely and the sun can be blazing. The three-layered roof filters daylight, mitigates solar radiation and ensures watertightness. The car park does not only provide a shady shelter, but also acts as a photovoltaic solar plant. The simulations carried out by AREP Environnement and AREP Expertise led to high-performance solutions enabling thermal comfort all year round.
Preserving biodiversity and natural resources
Water retention ponds and swales that increase water infiltration are some of the solutions implemented to deal with water scarcity on the site. The existing groves have been maintained and environmental actions have been taken to preserve the local fauna. No doubt the ocellated lizard, an endangered species living in the site, appreciates those initiatives.
Last news
Nimes Pont-du-Gard, 1st station certified "Bâtiment Durable Occitanie"
2020.09.29
9 months after its opening, the Nîmes Pont-du-Gard railway station is recognised as an "Occitanie Sustainable Buildings". After obtaining the "Mediterranean Sustainable Building" label in 2017 in the design phase, this new certification, obtained at the Silver level and in the construction phase, confirms the exemplary nature of the latest French station in terms of environmental performance.The AREP and SNCF Gares & Connexions teams are proud to have included this new multimodal exchange hub in Nîmes Pont-du-Gard in an eco-design approach and to make it the 1st Mediterranean Sustainable Building station.
This project illustrates AREP's environmental ambition to invent sustainable, low-carbon solutions to serve all territories and all types of mobility.