Nantes Station: SNCF to review its plans for the building's suffocating mezzanine

Nantes station was becoming an oven in extreme heat. A few days after the emergency closure of its brand-new mezzanine during the heatwave at the beginning of summer, the SNCF announced it was preparing a series of studies to better prepare the building for the highest temperatures. This approach should also benefit other rail platforms.

"SNCF Gares & Connexions is working on adapting stations to extreme heat, in order to not only find a rapid response in terms of installations for the affected stations in the short term, but also to initiate a more comprehensive approach ," the company's management told Le Figaro on Thursday, confirming a report from the daily Presse Océan . While waiting to find a long-term solution, three large fans have been installed on the mezzanine to cool the building, which has become a furnace. This backup solution has also been deployed at Rennes station, which is now equipped with 18 fans.

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This 4,000 ^m2 glass-roofed space, designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti and inaugurated in 2020 after a €37.5 million construction project, proved ill-suited to periods of intense heat. On June 30, access to this structure suspended above the station platforms had to be blocked in the early afternoon due to the stifling heat there, with peaks of 43°C. The closure of this spacious site caused congestion in the rest of the station, causing security problems related to crowd management. The mezzanine was finally reopened in the late afternoon.

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Offering a beautiful panorama of the city of Nantes, the station mezzanine was designed as a suspended street above the railway tracks. To avoid transforming the glass roof into a furnace, the glass walls were treated "to ensure strong protection against the sun's heat," indicated the SNCF press kit in 2020. The glass roof is also supported by tree-shaped pillars, whose decorative concrete foliage serves as a shade structure. These are all features that, however, seem to reach their limits during heatwaves.

Asked by our colleagues at Batiactu , architect Rudy Ricciotti acknowledged "atypical" overheating of the mezzanine during the recent heatwave. However, he denounces a "total misunderstanding of the project ," conceived as a bioclimatic facility designed without heating or air conditioning. His solution? Open the access doors to the platforms to create natural ventilation and... invite passengers to wear appropriate clothing.