Babel – La Madeleine, Lille
 
The Babel project is a capacitor of urban and professional activities adjoining the Euralille district planned by OMA along the urban boulevard linking the different municipalities of the Lille metropolis. It tackles the question of how to deal with the orbital roads and beltways typical of European cities. These roads contain major land reserves, but usually accommodate only random low-density activities rejected from city centres. Babel is a development proposal for an area of more than 60,000 sqm of additional activities that form a campus-like landscape with new free-floating objects around the ring road. The building is shaped like a coliseum, a circular amphitheatre, with each slice hosting a different function: offices, housing, hotel, shops, kindergarten… A city in the nature of the boundary of the historical city.