Amiens wants to place its railway station at the heart of a vast urban project. Over the years, this historic gateway to the Picardy capital will become a real place of life and exchange, an integral part of a city centre undergoing major changes.
An artistic work and a complete redevelopment of the square into an “Octopus garden” in connection with the imagination of Jules Vernes will enliven the square colonized by 120 bamboos of about ten meters.
Bamboo, a vernal plant whose structural and aesthetic qualities have inspired artists and engineers, attracts biodiversity, birds and freshness. It should therefore correct the hyper-mineral character of the station square and install the landscape setting of the luminous work.
The last phase of the Octopus Garden is underway, the installation of a giant squid sculpture imagined by François Schuiten in connection with the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869-1870), which will be executed by the sculptor Pierre Matter. The aim of the Town Hall is to make a strong statement in the city about the presence of the writer buried in the Madeleine cemetery.
A link with the city centre, the station square is a gateway to the Ideal Valley district and further out to the sea. It appeals to our imaginations.