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Paris Ghost Stations : Architecture

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet Campaign – New Building Designs by Manal Rachdi & Nicolas Laisné

9 Feb 2014

Paris Ghost Metro Stations

Paris mayor candidate promises lush makeovers for ghost metro stations

Architects: Manal Rachdi and Nicolas Laisné

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet unveils grand designs for city’s unused metro stations, reports The Guardian

Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the centre-right UMP candidate for mayor of Paris, has livened up an otherwise lacklustre campaign with a series of stunning photographs of how the city’s ghost metro stations might be used.

Futuristic photographs show the Arsenal station, near the Bastille – closed in 1939 at the start of the second world war and never reopened – transformed into a gleaming swimming pool, theatre and concert hall, nightclub, art gallery and even refectory-style restaurant.

Kosciusko-Morizet, known by her initials NKM, says the plans drawn up by two Paris architects – Manal Rachdi and Nicolas Laisné – are “examples of the field of possibilities” of uses for the underground stations, and that if elected she will ask Parisians for their own ideas.

There are a total of 16 ghost stations on the Paris metro; stops that were closed or never opened. Most of them were shut up in 1939, while two of them were built but never opened to the public.

Some have been temporarily transformed for advertising campaigns or film settings, as was the original Porte-des-Lilas, closed in 1935 but used as a backdrop for the Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain. Part of the now-abandoned Saint-Martin stop, closed in 1939, is used as shelter for the homeless during the winter.