France
Design development
Service area
To enter the site from the A16, you have to sweep
around a U-bend. This detour might seem a peculiar
approach, but it results from a conscious decision
by the landscape architects^7 – to slow down the
traffic speed and to gradually guide drivers to the
goal of this stop: the petrol, the food, the toilets
and, unusually for a motorway stopping place, to a
high-quality park.
A functional material – asphalt – was chosen for the
surfacing of the traffic areas in the service station.
Here there are organised parking places for cars,
trucks and buses close to the petrol station.
To stabilise the roads, the soil had to undergo a
lime treatment, by mixing the clay-filled earth with
crushed lime. This creates a chemical reaction that
dries the clay and the soil is thus stabilised and
hardened.^8
A special feature of the Bay of Somme services is
that you can actually arrive at the service building
and its park without going onto the motorway at
all. A separate road to the service area crosses the
motorway by a bridge. Visitors who arrive this way
can use the facilities, but have no vehicular access
to the motorway. This opens up the site not only for
motorway users but also for local inhabitants and
for tourists who are staying in the area.
The local flora which is found on a calciferous soil
inspires all the new planting in the project. South
of the access road there is a dense woodland,
which includes such species as Fraxinus excelsior,
Quercus robur and Acer platanoides. Here the veg-
etation and the slopes enhance the feeling that you
are moving away from the motorway out into the
countryside. In the areas close to the access road,
solitary trees are dispersed on the slopes which are
covered with meadow flowers.
The service building
The service building is constructed on a rectangular
surface 0.6m above the previous natural ground
level and contains a playground, terraces and park-
ing towards the artificial pond situated in between
the building and the park. Here the surfaces are
more varied, including béton désactivé (exposed
aggregate concrete), gravel, timber decking and
sable stabilisé (stabilised sand).
The main service building is designed to be opaque
towards the petrol station and the parking areas.
Here you find restaurants, toilets, shops and infor-
mation stands about the Bay of Somme. The walls
are made of concrete elements with inlaid stones
from the local coast. On the other side, the building
3.9
Photo of the U-bend and slopes towards the service
building with the wind turbine in the background
