We all are coming to terms with the harsh reality that we are running out of space on Earth. Speaking of space, what do we also do about the places which have been abandoned and are no longer in use? For example, in Paris we have abandoned Paris Metro stations and well, they are just a waste of space or at least were up till now. Right now, there is a political candidate in Paris with the idea of transforming these abandoned stations into nightclubs, public pools, art galleries and restaurants! So just who is this candidate? Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet is essentially a center-right candidate for the mayor of Paris and a former Environment Minister who has revealed some ambitious plans to transform the ghost stations of Paris into underground places which will attract more and more people. She has already acquired services of Manal Rachdi and Nicolas Laisné to come up with a scheme for redesigning the stations into spaces for displaying art, open restaurants and parks. The architects say: ‘To swim in the metro seems like a crazy dream, but it could soon come true. Turning a former metro station into a swimming pool or a gymnasium could be a way to compensate for the lack of sports and leisure facilities in some areas.’ They also think that having this space being used for nightclubs would greatly minimize the noise complaints, yet offering a place to continue night life in neighborhoods. Most of these stations have been abandoned since World War II back in 1939 and it is about time that we all made something out of these. Although, many of these stations haven’t had the luxury of passengers in 75 years however, yet lead quite an active life. For example; Saint-Martin station has been used as a shelter when it comes to homeless persons and was also made use of to debut the 2010 Nissan Qashqai crossover. The Arsenal and Porte des Lilas stations have been used as backdrops for movies. Well, all in all, the whole initiative looks awesome and we wish Morizet luck with endeavor.
Check out the youtube video below for more details:
Unfortunately, all this cannot be made in real life :
If “ghost stations” really exists in Paris, most of them (well, almost all of them, really), are located on functional railways, which means the center of the station bet between the platforms can’t be used by something else that trains (which go through every 2 minutes). Too bad for the pool.
This is a nice dream, but sadly unrealistic.