The New Railway Station in Liège (Belgium)

The project of brand new railway station with a huge peak from a steel and glass was developed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

High-speed Railway System in Belgium

The project connects two parts of a city till now divided by tracks. The peak covers five platforms and lasts on 145 meters at length.
The underground floor with a series of foot bridges and paths which connect various parts of a complex is created. The station provides a high-speed railway system of Belgium with a new complex of services.

VIA «Railway Station “Under the Peak”»

Planking is a craze for taking photos of people lying down in unusual places and then posting them on the web.
Game on: Planking during a game of golf
A spokesman for the fan page - which was only set up in the past fortnight and which we cannot name for legal reasons - defended the past time.
'For most people, it's just a bit of harmless fun,' he told the York Press, declining to give his name.
He said the group did not condone people planking in dangerous spots, but added they could not be held responsible for anyone who chose to do so.
'However, we have decided to regulate the site now and remove some of the pictures,' he said.
'We have blocked access [to the Facebook profile] to about 800 people under 18, as they might be easily influenced and put themselves in danger.'
Risky: Participants taking part in the craze lie face down in a tree
The page has already attracted nearly 3,500 'likes' on Facebook.
Fans have posted pictures of themselves on the page planking in locations including on top of nightclub soundsystems, on cars and on bales of hay.
The youngster allegedly pictured planking on the rail tracks was arrested after police received calls from members of the public identifying him.
A spokesman for the British Transport police said: 'After the pictures were brought to our attention, we launched an investigation to identify the male involved.
'We would like to thank members of the public who came forward to identify the boy pictured, who was extremely lucky he wasnt killed or badly injured as a result of his behaviour.
What a plank: Gordon Ramsay posted up a picture on his Twitter of himself trying out the latest internet craze of planking
'This was very dangerous behaviour. With high speed trains and electric currents, the railway should never be treated as somewhere to play or hang about. When people are spotted on the railway trains are alerted, which causes disruption and delays.
'People who trespass on the railway are not just risking a court appearance, they are taking a gamble with their lives.
'The last thing our officers want is to have to tell a mother, father or another family member that their loved one has died after trespassing on the railway.'
She confirmed that this was only the second incident of 'planking' on the railways in the UK and the first arrest.
In recent months, planking has become a worldwide craze - even celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has posted pictures of himself doing it online.
Tragedy: Simon Hallam was left fighting for his life after a planking stunt gone wrong
But the phenomenon has already led to tragedies.
Last month 20-year-old Australian Acton Beale died after he fell seven storeys from the balcony railing of a block of flats.
Days later, also in Australia, plasterer Simon Hallam was left fighting for his life after falling and hitting his head while planking on the boot of a fast moving car.
source : dailymail

VIA Teenager charged with trespassing on railway - after planking photo ends up on Facebook

Car factory in Paris

AREP builds on city's historic legacy with redevelopment of former car factory in Paris. AREP has redeveloped the former Panhard car factory in Porte d'Ivry, Paris, applying exciting design choices to work with the city's existing heritage.

The Panhard and Levassor workshops were partially demolished in 1967 to create the Olympiades district. They are the last remnants of a thriving industrial past, after the demolition of all the automobile plants in Paris: the Renault facilities on Ile Séguin, Citroën in Javel and part of the Panhard factory at Porte d'Ivry.

Between 2007 and 2013, AREP extended and entirely refurbished the building to create 21,000 sq m of office space as well as public facilities (a nursery and the premises of a non-profit organisation running a day centre for the homeless). The firm worked with architects Jean-Marie Duthilleul and Etienne Tricaud and with Benoît Ferré and Serge Caillaud (Phase 1 and Building Work Management).

In an environment dominated by the verticality of high-rise residential blocks, the project keeps the former factory alive, sustains its horizontality and unique architectural style and relies on the ornamental features of the existing façades: materials, dominant chromatic palette and contour line.

The brick façade provides a mineral base extending the current façades while the openings are in line with the rhythm of the original building. Each, partially or entirely, new façade forms a coherent whole with the reinforced mineral angles providing the framework for a more open sequence in the centre.

Two large industrial-style statuesque boxes loom above the roof-top mouldings, clad in a double semi-transparent layer of glass and perforated coppery metal and echoing the tiles on the saw tooth roofs. These are intended as a metaphor of the former industrial features.

The adjacent cut of the Petite Ceinture (an abandoned railway line) was decked over to create a garden. Planted with ground covering plants, shrubs and trees, the garden slopes down from Rue Regnault to the new garden level, reflecting the characteristic bucolic image of the embankments of the Petite Ceinture, where vegetation takes over any available space.

The new extension houses a nursery in its north-east corner and a day centre for the homeless in its north-west corner, both situated on the garden and ground-floor levels.

The work spaces inside the building are designed to facilitate contact, interaction, formal and informal relations. This result is achieved through clearly designed spaces (atrium and vertical access flows), quality of the working environment (natural light, acoustics and ergonomics) and green spaces.

VIA «Redevelopment of the Car Factory In Porte d'Ivry [France, Paris]»

Musical Zenith

VIA «Foster + Partners have reincarnated in Zenith»