Reduced impact on the environment, enhancement of the landscape, and protection of affected residential areas, have become major concerns when devising a new highway.

The Grenoble – Col du Fau section of highway 51, faced with a particularly challenging topography, offers an evocative example of how to reconcile these imperatives with the realisation of a sure and fluid arterial road.

In the first instance the proposal rejects the notion of the “chameleon highway” – the richness and diversity of the surrounding landscape would render this mimetic approach obsolete. Furthermore, the project relies on the outstanding character of the projected works, important compositional elements set within the landscape.

The architectural response for highway 51 results from this double objective: to identify and enhance the concept of the highway itself, and to adapt the interventions to each specific site and landscape environment.

This has lead to the following three intentions:

the identification of the circulation strip and its uninterrupted path (devised as a “virtual tube”, a high speed artery irrigating the mountains), the elaboration of interventions independent from the highway yet specific to each surrounding context, and the strong integration of related elements into the landscape, elements accompanying the carriageway, like service areas or slip-roads.