The Beam, Villeneuve d'Ascq, highway view.
Villeneuve d’Ascq, a town of over 62,000 people that is situated on the outskirts of Lille, France, will be the home of a new master plan called “The Beam.” Designed by a team led by development corporation ADIM Nord with MVRDV and de Alzua+, the winning proposal, selected from a field of five competitors, will comprise a hotel, offices, and retail spaces in a 15,000-square-meter (161,500-square-foot) site at the town center. Based on the volume study submitted for the competition, The Beam will be situated above the bustling highway that connects to Lille, with its upper volume sitting at an angle above the lower, cantilevering out to mark the Villeneuve d’Ascq town center. Surface parking and underutilized real estate will be replaced by a series of connected, pedestrian-friendly courtyards over subterranean parking. Construction is slated to begin in 2015.
In related news, another of MVRDV's projects, Book Mountain, was recently honored with a Red Dot Award for high quality design in the Architecture and Urban Design category. The Netherlands-based firm won the prize in a field of 4,662 entries.
For more details and images of The Beam, visit ARCHITECT 's Project Gallery.
