“Melt all the bells to make as many rails for new ultra-fast trains”: if he were still among us, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s eyes would shine if he saw the trains and stations of the High Speed Railway, a manifesto of the spectacular progress in mechanical and infrastructural technology that he so much desired. Indeed, as accustomed as we are today to an increasingly rapid flow of information and travel – both material and immaterial – it is still not unusual to be amazed at how transport times have radically shortened. We are certainly ‘light years’ away from the complacency of the romantic travellers of the 18th century Grand Tour who savoured the journey in the dimension of slowness and as an aim in itself beyond the final destination: but times change, moods too, and today it is more important to ‘arrive early’ than to enjoy the journey. Despite this ‘fall of the aura’ of the traveller’s spirit that would make Chatwin shiver, the stations of the High Speed trains have certainly become a strategic presence in the territory that goes far beyond the need to take a train: hyper-technological ‘cathedrals’, often designed with refined criteria in the name of environmental sustainability, they stand as propulsive ‘engines’ of socio-economic development and as instruments for the reconnection of disconnected urban fabrics. Thus, from Italy (Rome Tiburtina Station by ABDR; Turin Porta Susa Station by AREP, D’Ascia and Magnaghi; Mediopadana Station by Calatrava; Naples’ Afragola station by Hadid), to China (Hong Kong West Kowloon Terminus by Bromberg architects), to Morocco (Kénitra station by D’Ascia), to the Netherlands (Rotterdam Centraal Station by Team CS), the architecture for the “ultra – fast” trains astonishes for its grandeur and efficiency, but the somewhat sentimental idea remains that, beyond the many benefits, perhaps something more intimate and emotional in an “accelerated” perception of space from behind the window is inevitably lost: places of life and encounter, of integration and interaction, or still anonymous and lonely, albeit glossy, ‘non-places’, as Marc Augé saw them?
7 new railway stations, from Rome to Hong Kong, from Calatrava to Zaha Hadid
High-speed railway stations are iconic architectures that, far beyond their strictly travel-related function, represent technological innovation, socio-economic development, and urban regeneration. But something is being lost.
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- Chiara Testoni
- 08 March 2024
Opening image: Santiago Calatrava architects & engineers, Mediopadana Station, Reggio Emilia, Italy 2013. Courtesy Santiago Calatrava architects & engineers
Located at one of the crucial nodes in the capital's metropolitan development, the station was designed not only to fulfil the requirements of a strategic junction for international and regional traffic but also as an "urban piazza" capable of mending the caesura between the Nomentano and Pietralata neighbourhoods, which have always been separated by the railway line. The "bridge" building, inspired by the nineteenth-century passages typology, is an imposing volume about 350 m long and 60 m wide, suspended over the tracks and resting on the two entrance halls from Nomentano and Pietralata. A vast metal roof consisting of an extra-roofed reticular structure serves as protection and screening for the entirely glazed façades, from which the blocks housing VIP lounges, internet offices, offices and restaurants are suspended.
With more than 110,000 passengers a day, Rotterdam Centraal Station is one of the major transport hubs in the Netherlands. The construction of the imposing building was an opportunity to reconnect a heterogeneous urban fabric: if on the south side, adjacent to a residential district of lesser passage, the façade is sober and transparent, on the north side the work connotes itself as an iconic "gateway" to the city, with a glazed aerodynamic volume entirely clad in steel. Inside, an airy, light-filled environment welcomes travellers: a weave of "Y"-shaped steel columns supports the 250 m long transparent roof, composed of glazed elements integrated with solar cells.
The gateway to the Piedmontese capital for those travelling on high-speed trains, the 386 m long and 30 m wide building reinterprets in a contemporary key the passages of the 19th century, a consolidated building typology in Turin's urban fabric. The work, supported by 106 arches, is a veritable urban gallery where one can stop at restaurants, bars and shops, and resembles a long glass and steel tube with an envelope of "intelligent" technology: monocrystalline photovoltaic cells integrated in the glass panes create a sunscreen of variable density, producing energy for 680,000 KWh/year and contributing to environmental comfort.
The Mediopadana station, the only stop on the Milan-Bologna high-speed line, plays a strategically important role in the regional, national and international mobility system and is an iconic presence for those travelling on the A1 motorway. With its gigantic 'wave' volume, composed of 19 modules made up of a tight succession of steel portals staggered and spaced out to create an effect of accentuated dynamism, it is a landmark that stands out vigorously against the flat skyline of the Po Valley and, in keeping with its functional and somewhat futuristic vocation, is best perceived from a moving perspective.
One of the main interchange stations in southern Italy, the building with a length of about 400 m and a width of about 44 m, with a reinforced concrete and steel structure, Corian cladding and glazed panels, is a "bridge" designed with the intention of overcoming the barrier of the existing railway line: its fluid and enveloping forms, vaguely zoomorphic to the point of recalling the skeleton of a dinosaur sleeping on the tracks, welcome visitors into a bright and futuristic environment. Solar panels integrated into the roof of the canopies, combined ventilation and integrated cooling and heating systems make it possible to minimise annual energy requirements.
In Hong Kong, one of the most overcrowded and congested metropolises on the planet, the KWT station is not only an important national and international railway junction but also an urban park that has increased the city's green space by 15%. The complex, a 180-metre long structure with an average width of 65 metres and 15 tracks, is the largest underground railway station in the world and includes more than 3 hectares of parkland, with a total of 6 hectares of open space. If on the outside visitors walk on the softly curved roofs dotted with greenery, exploring the urban skyline from different perspectives, on the inside an explosion of glass and steel frames a majestic and swarming space that is not at all intimidating, thanks to its pleasantly light-flooded atmosphere and rarefied tones.
The Kénitra station, one of four on the high-speed railway line connecting Tangier to Casablanca via Kénitra and Rabat, is part of an ambitious project for the socio-economic and technological development of the Moroccan territory. Conceived as a trait-d'union between the new city and the historical fabric thanks to the footbridges that bypass the tracks and reconnect the two parts of the city, the complex on three levels and a basement is articulated around a triple-height hall that is the representative and functional epicentre of the place, from which to go to the tracks or where to stop for tea. Paying homage to the architecture of Islamic countries and in particular to the element of the mashrabiyya, a traditional grid that filters light, ventilation and prying eyes, the envelope is conceived as a large screen with triangular elements in high-performance fibre-reinforced concrete, which regulates the building's thermal comfort amidst suggestive chiaroscuro effects.