A faceted wrapping of aluminium looms over the platforms at this high-speed railway station in northern Spain by Abalos+Sentkiewicz Arquitectos (+ slideshow).
Each of the platforms are buried below the ground and sit within the structure of an existing station and tunnel.
Architect Juan Enríquez told Dezeen how the "irregular tetrahedral configuration" of the new faceted ceiling wraps and supports the original structure, but tiny perforations let passengers see the columns and joists contained behind the aluminium surfaces.
The station was completed as part of a wider project to deliver a transportation hub, public park and housing development on a single site in the riverside city of Logroño.
Five residential towers will surround the station, while the new public park slopes up over the roof.
Circular openings in this roof open up to glazed rooftop pavilions, which reflect natural light onto the platforms using a system of mirrors.
See more stories about stations, including the vaulted concourse at King's Cross in London and a metro station with a spotty roof.
Photography is by José Hevia.
Here's a project description from the architects:
High Speed Train Station in Logroño
The railway station has been designed in accordance with the urban role assigned in the proposal for the international competition and the urban planning and landscape further developed. The station serves as a starting point of a new urban project, which re-establishes the connectivity between the North and South of the city and leads to a large public park where the roof is an integrated part giving its geometry and topography to the volume.
All stations in surface that we know mean an abrupt interruption of urban continuity. Precisely, the urban element that is destined to unite and bring together the city with the territory, leaves a void in the city involving urban and social segregation. The opportunity to rethink the typology of the station that means the burial of the tracks should be a shift in the form of conceiving them. Intermodal Stations are an opportunity to transform the city, creating public spaces, developing green belts, promoting pedestrian and bicycle mobility: an opportunity to create a new topography to intensify the experience of the city as a collective process.
What makes the project LIF 2002 unique is having faced from its beginnings with an intensity divided between infrastructure and urbanism, landscape and architecture, ecology and economy; with a whole model of management that seeks quality and innovation in all moments of process and attends both quantitative and qualitative aspects. In this sense it may be said that it is a pioneering experience both on landform buildings as well as ecological urbanism.
International Restricted Competition by invitation: First Prize (2006)
Client: LIF 2002,SA (Ayuntamiento de Logroño, Comunidad autónoma de La Rioja, ADIF)
LIF 2002, SA management: Mª Cruz Gutiérrez
Location: Logroño, La Rioja, España
Program: “Plan Especial de Reforma Interior desarrollado, aprobado” (2006-2009): Train Station, Bus Station, Parking, Housing, Park and Urbanization.
Area PERI: 213Ha. Train Station Area: 8.000m2. Sup. Platform area: 19.000m2. Parking Area: 18.000m2. Bus Station Area: 10.800m2. Urbanization: 145.000m2. Housing Area (Towers): 41.250m2. Housing Area (Other Housing): 83.750m2.
First Phase Budget (Underground burying + Train Station): 108.000.000€
Bus Station Budget: 20.000.000€
Status: High Speed Train Station finished, Park and Urbanization in progress
Project Direction: Abalos + Sentkiewicz arquitectos (Iñaki Ábalos, Alfonso Miguel, Renata Sentkiewicz)
Project Team: Yeray Brito, Aaron Forest, Pablo de la Hoz, Ismael Martín, Laura Torres, Fernando Rodríguez, Haizea Aguirre, Elena Rodríguez, Verónica Meléndez.
Landscape Design: Ábalos + Sentkiewicz (Iñaki Ábalos, Renata Sentkiewicz)
Urban Collaborators: ARUP (competition), Ezquiaga Arquitectura Sociedad y Territorio SL (PERI)