Ricerc@Sapienza

Station F a start-up incubator for 3,000 entrepreneurs and businesses, concluded, with some controversy, the long and complex story concerning the history of the Halle Freyssinet in Paris, a former railway shed but, above all, an outstanding building made of pre-stressed concrete, designed between 1927 and 1929 by the French engineer Eugène Freyssinet, who had seriously threatened to be demolished. In 1928, Eugène Freyssinet patented the first of his three inventions for applying compression to concrete; it was a process of applying compression by “pre-tension and bonded wires,” which facilitated the manufacture of precast elements (this is the birth of prestressing). For this reason, the load-bearing structure is exceptionally light thanks to an innovative technique used to apply the concrete; as a result of this original feature the Halle Freyssinet was listed as a Historical Monument in 2012. Today, it sits in the Paris Rive Gauche urban renewal area, just by the French national library in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. The transformation of the Halle into Station F was a real challenge for the architectural and climatic. The structure was initially conceived as a transhipment hub for trains and trucks, without heating and open on all four sides. Therefore, a real building that meets current standards of comfort had to emerge while maintaining the original architectural appearance. The restoration and reuse project of the Halle and its particular urban position allowed us to reflect, once again, on the importance and centrality of the theme of the "Use" and on the new "ethical" values imposed by contemporary society.