Architects: Jean-Luc Thibaud, Christine Thibaud-Zingg
Photos by: Ch. Lehmann, Thibaud Zingg
Typology: Public Space
Location: Yverdon-les-Bains
Date: 2008-2009
By requalifying an urban area previously undefined and designed only for car traffic, this urban public space for pedestrian use creates a major link between the city center and its extensions towards the train station and the lake. The leveling of the surface between building fronts, made of small-format sand-grouted stone pavements, gives a unified character to the square. It is magnified by a fountain-wall made of integral colored concrete, accompanying the pedestrian route. The water emerges on top of the wall and flows over all of its faces. On one side on the ground, it overflows and then voluntarily wets a portion of the paved surface passersby use. Some spring-flowering trees balance the minerality of the space. Public lighting is discrete during daytime, to reveal itself at night. Small, specially conceived light sources are placed irregularly on cables stretched between buildings, to create a luminous ceiling.