Close your eyes. Now, imagine that you are in Paris. You are going to visit the Museum Arts et Métiers, the same one which has the station’s name: The Line 11 platform at the Arts et Metier metro stop, considered the most beautiful subway station . Not a coincidence, as you thought: the name of the metro stop has the museum as its reason.
Designed by architect/interior designers Galmidi Yitzhar and industrial designer Yaksein Eliran, the concept was inspired by the Ficus Microcarpa trees that have been planted in Tel Aviv to provide shade. Underground, Yitzhar and Eliran use the form of the tree conversely, to provide illumination through skylights.
The style station had been redesigned that way in 1994 by Francois Schuiten. The warm light turns Arts et Metiers shining, an astonishing subway that looks like if lit by the sun.
It looks clear that the design’s intent is to imitate and enhance the ambiance and feel of the outside world and to bring the street into the train station.
We let you with Lorànt Deutsch thoughts of this unique station:
C’est un sous-marin, le rêve d’un savant fou, le décor des Temps modernes de Charlie Chaplin? On voudrait s’y embarquer pour un longue voyage qui nous emporterait non pas ailleurs , mais ici même, dans autre temps.
It’s a submarine, the dream of a mad scientist, the decor of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times? We would like to embark for a long journey that will take us not elsewhere, but here in another time.
