november 30.2015
The future of train travel is revealed as Arnhem Central Station opens
after 20-years of development. The Transfer Terminal is the central piece of
the Masterplan linking different programs and levels within the station area.
The station will become the new "front door" of the city,
embracing the spirit of travel, and is expected to establish Arnhem as an
important node between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
UNStudio began the Masterplan in 1996 and completed its first sketch design
for the Transfer Terminal in 2000. After intensively researching passenger
flows and transportation modes, UNStudio proposed that the new terminal should
expand to become a "transfer machine" that incorporates the whole
spectrum of public transport, meeting the travel demands of the 21st century.
The Transfer Terminal features a dramatic twisting structural roof
geometry, which enables column-free spans of up to 60 meters. Taking references
from the continuous inside/outside surface of a Klein Bottle, UNStudio aimed to
blur the distinction between the inside and outside of the terminal by
continuing the urban landscape into the interior of the transfer hall, where
ceilings, walls and floors all seamlessly transition into one another.
The structure of the roof and twisting column was only made possible by
abandoning traditional construction methods and materials; much lighter steel
replaced concrete - originally intended for the station - and was constructed
using boat building techniques on a scale never before attempted.
The new terminal houses commercial areas, and a conference centre, and
provides links to the nearby office plaza, city centre, underground parking
garage and the Park Sonsbeek.
Integrating the naturally sloping landscape distinctive to Arnhem, UNStudio
conceived the Transfer Terminal
as a flowing, utilitarian landscape of
different functions stacked up to four stories above ground and two below.
Arnhem Central is no
longer just a train station. It has become a transfer hub. We wanted to give a
new and vital impetus to station design, so rather than merely designing the
station around the activities and people flows that already took place there,
the expanded architecture of the new Transfer Terminal directs and determines
how people use and move around the building."/Ben van Berkel, Founder
and Principal architect of UNStudio
The project is part of a countrywide railway upgrade that will see new
stations in Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague, Breda and Utrecht.
