The St. Maur – Créteil station is a key component of the ambitious project to extend the Paris metro lines into the suburbs of the French capital. As part of the new Line 15, it is the deepest metro station in France, reaching a depth of 52 meters. The desire for an open and spacious entrance area led to the development of an innovative ring cable roof, supported only by five slender columns at the edges.
A particular challenge in the design was the polygonal cross-section of the circular compression ring, which, due to the vertical arrangement of the cables, resulted in high torsional forces. Originally, the inner circular acoustic panels were intended to support the PTFE membrane, which is tensioned only in the radial direction. However, due to the flat silhouette of the dome roof, there was a risk of water accumulation on the membrane.
sbp then developed an effective solution: by changing the membrane’s load-bearing behavior, it is now primarily tensioned tangentially between the cables. This creates a steeper roof valley, allowing better water drainage and effectively solving the problem of water accumulation. The approach combines technical precision with appealing design, creating a bright and welcoming entrance area for the new metro station.
