Euralille - Izeria

Euralille is an urban quarter in the centre of Lille, France. Conceived as a major European business district in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it is strategically located at the intersection of the high-speed railway lines linking Paris, Brussels, and London, and incorporates the Gare de Lille Europe and Gare de Lille Flandres railway stations. The master plan was commissioned in 1988 to the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) led by Rem Koolhaas.

1. Masterplan

The masterplan comprised an area of 120 hectares, and proposed a program of 800,000 square metres of floor area for various urban activities, including shopping, offices, hotels and housing, a concert hall and a congress centre. The planned functional mix has been subject to change and in 2006 comprised 40% office, 20% residential and 40% amenities space. The masterplan defined several distinct areas: a mixed-use precinct comprising a shopping mall named Triangle des Gares designed by Jean Nouvel, the TGV station designed by Jean-Marie Duthilleul with two office towers above by architects Christian de Portzamparc and Claude Vasconi, the Parc Henri Matisse designed by Gilles Clément and a congress centre known as the Grand Palais designed by OMA. The masterplan also re-organized the infrastructure, a complicated junction of various transportation systems. The initial development area has been extended since 2000 by another 22 hectares, named Euralille 2.

1. Project development

The project was financed as a private-public partnership, established in 1990. The ambitious program was delayed in part because of the mid-1990s real-estate market crisis. The first phase of the project opened in 1994 and continued to expand in the following decade. After the Tour de Lille and Tour Lilleurope office towers were completed in 1995, the Suite Hôtel was completed in 2005.

1. References


1. Further reading

Espace Croisé and Isabelle Menu (ed.) (1996): Euralille: The Making of a New City Centre: Koolhaas, Nouvel, Portzamparc, Vaconi, Duthilleul, Birkhäuser Valéry Didelon, « Surfing the Wave of Neoliberalism: Rem Koolhaas in Lille », in Kenny Cupers, Catharina Gabrielsson & Helena Mattsson (Eds), Neoliberalism on the Ground: Architecture and Transformation from the 1960’s to the Present, Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.

1. External links

Media related to Euralille at Wikimedia Commons

Euralille presentation by the Lille Metropole Development Agency Zénith de Lille, official website Lille Grand Palais, official website

Nearby Places View Menu

135 m

ESC Lille

ESC Lille is a French business school founded in 1892. It has two campuses, one in Lille and one in Paris. ESC Lille is EQUIS accredited by the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Education) and the Conference Of The Grandes Ecoles. In 2005, it was the first European business school to be accredited by Project Management Institute’s Global Accreditation Center for Project Management (GACPM), and is still the only PMI-accredited business school in France. In July 2009 the union of Ceram Business School and ESC Lille was announced. It will create the largest French business school in terms of student numbers. The new school, named Skema Business School (School of Knowledge Economy and MAnagement), span three sites in France in Lille, Paris and Sophia Antipolis near Nice and three sites: in China (Suzhou) United States (Raleigh, NC) and Brazil (Belo Orizonte). In May 2019 SKEMA Business School announced the opening of a new site in Cape Town (South Africa) and the possibility to enter in Russia and India.

School University

Lille-Flandres station

Lille-Flandres station (French: Gare de Lille-Flandres, Dutch: Station Lille-Flandres) is the main railway station of Lille, capital of French Flanders. It is a terminus for SNCF Intercity and regional trains. It opened in 1842 as the Gare de Lille, but was renamed in 1993 when Lille Europe station opened. There is a 500 metres (1,600 ft) walking distance between the two stations, which are also adjacent stops on one of the lines of the Lille Metro.

Landmark Train

Lille-Europe station

Lille–Europe station (French: Gare de Lille-Europe) is a SNCF railway station in Lille, France, on the LGV Nord high-speed railway. The station is primarily used for international Eurostar and long-distance SNCF TGV services, although some high-speed regional trains also call at the station. The station was built in 1993 to be used as a through station for trains between the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as French TGV services, except those coming from Paris, which normally terminate at Lille-Flandres station. There is a 400-metre (1,300 ft) walking distance between the two stations, which are also connected by the Lille Metro and Lille tramway. Lille-Europe has 2 Island platforms serving 4 tracks, plus 2 gated through tracks for non-stopping trains in the middle of the station. The Main concourse is situated above the bypass.

Airport Train

Zénith de Lille

The Zénith de Lille (originally Zénith Arena) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Lille, France. Its ability to seat up to 7,000 people makes it one of the largest venues in Lille. The closest métro station is Lille Grand Palais. Designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas with Cecil Balmond and inaugurated in 1994, the Zénith Arena is a part of the cultural complex Lille Grand Palais which includes two other spaces: a congress center and exhibition halls. Rem Koolhaas surrounded himself with Renz van Luxemburg for the acoustic studies, dUCKS scéno for the scenography and Arup Group for the engineering studies.

Event Music