The Station of Memories

The Station of Memories is a metaphor of past memories, when the family was gathering for special family events. It is a place out of time, another space-time in which everyone can connect and remember part of his/her life, out of the current everyday life. This is a simple and small family train station located in a pretty countryside little town.

Just like the French writer Marcel Proust tells his childhood feelings and childhood memories in his book called “In Search of Lost Time”, my idea is to materialize what everyone has in his/her heart with memories of moments when the family is all-gathered over Christmas but also over any other holidays. How to materialize the gathering of a family, whose members are living in different places in one single place? The Station of Memories, where the memory train arrives and leaves, is the image of a place where one arrives, longing to see his/her family and where he/she leaves with unforgettable memories of the time shared with them. The Station of Memories is the place where one can find all the greatest memories of his/her childhood and past.

My 4-year-old son who recently discovered the Lego game told me: “Dad, I would like to ask a remote control Lego train to Santa”. This reminded me of how I used to feel during Christmas holidays when I was a child. All the family gathered in a same place, at the same time, for powerful shared moments that would remain in our memories for the eternity.

- The ground floor where passengers can buy a ticket

- The first waiting area with comfortable seats where passengers can wait for their train or for someone they know to arrive

- The first floor where passengers can look at their memories with the telescope 

- The footbridge which come across the railway to link “searched memories” (arrival) with “found memories” (departure)

- The second waiting area on the other side, where passengers can arrive or leave

- Juliette, the mother, and Simon, her son: Juliette goes back to her parents’ home for holidays, and Simon is very happy because his grandfather will take him fishing for the first time.

- Cathy is buying 3 tickets to Carlos, the station manager while David, her husband, and Luka, her son, are upstairs. Luka is looking at his childhood memories with the telescope. They leave town to gather with the whole family in a big city far from there.

- Pierre is waiting for his train to go meet his girlfriend’s family for the first time

- Shana and Mary are sisters who are gathering in their childhood town to celebrate Christmas together

- Brandon, the train station director, who checks train tickets. He is giving the passengers all the memories they are looking for.

- Roxane and Marco, the mountaineers who were on holidays to climb the Black Mountain. They are now leaving town and Marco is feeling sad about it: he wishes he could stay longer to climb more mountains.