Métamorphose d’une gare traces the exceptional architectural
adventure of the building of the new Guillemins station in
Liège, at the heart of Europe and its network of high-speed
tracks. Thierry Michel’s camera follows the slow gestation of
this pharaonic project for nine years, from the first bite of the
mechanical diggers to the placing of the last cobblestone.
The construction of this building, entrusted to the famous
Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava, proved to be an
endless source of challenges. Firstly there was the
technological challenge of building a station on an existing
site without interrupting the traffic. This was a world first.
Its size, volume and unusual lines meant the building was
also an extraordinary architectural challenge requiring the
precision of a watchmaker.
Anxieties, frictions, tensions, but also relief and pride would
be the daily lot of those involved in this gigantic human
adventure. For all of them, the workers, site managers,
engineers and the commissioners of the project, the building
of thiswork was also one of the greatest architectural
projects of the new millennium.