MAD Architects has unveiled the “Train Station in the Forest,” a new project that covers an area of 35.4 hectares and will encompass the Jiaxing Train Station, the plazas to the north and south, and a renovation of the adjacent People’s Park. The completed project will become a new green urban center for Jiaxing’s citizens and travelers.
MAD’s design includes a 1:1 rebuilding of the historic station building (destroyed in 1937) derived from archival studies, while creating a new train station underground. MAD engaged with scholars, consultants, and experts in heritage architecture to recover data to help aid the project. Upon completion, the rebuilt old station building will become the Jiaxing Railway History Museum.
The new station will be bright, efficient, and human-scaled. Natural light will create a friendly, comfortable environment. The main transportation and commercial functions will be located in the basement level, allowing for ground-floor space to be given back to nature.
The people’s Park will radiate through the scheme into the city and form an urban oasis. A careful consideration to landscape and massing has formed an axis with the reconstructed old station building at its core. In front of the station, a large collection of canopy shaped trees has been planted, creating comfortable, natural shades for the plaza. Upon completion the scheme will become a borderless park where citizens and travelers can dwell and enjoy the natural environment.
The rebuilt train station building and the ‘floating’ metal roof of the new station will blend with the forest trees. The station concourse, platforms, and waiting hall are hidden underground so the building’s single-story height above ground level respects the scale of the old station building. The underground areas will be flooded with natural light thanks to skylights and glass curtain walls on the ground floor
As people move from the waiting hall to the platforms via a futuristic underground tunnel they will be able to see the rebuilt old station building overhead creating a sharp contrast between the past and the future.
Sunken courtyards will connect the underground commercial space with the parkland above. On the roof of the new station, solar photovoltaic panels will enhance the project’s sustainability. To the south of the station a new above-ground commercial area will be enclosed by landscaped public lawns that can host a variety of events, festivals, concerts, or markets.
Bus terminals, a tramway, metro, car parking, and taxi stands are interconnected by the scheme, creating an efficient transportation portfolio accessed from the train station. In total, the capacity of the train station will be upgraded to three platforms serving six tracks, as opposed to the previous three platforms serving five tracks. The overall passenger capacity is expected to reach 5.28 million people per year, with peak-time capacity reaching 2,300 people per hour.
Train Station in the Forest is slated for completion by July 1, 2021.
Related Stories
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Fluor, Arup, Day & Zimmermann top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest engineering firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
Top Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Gensler, Perkins+Will, NBBJ top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest architecture firms in the United States.
| Jul 18, 2014
2014 Giants 300 Report
Building Design+Construction magazine's annual ranking the nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction firms in the U.S.
| Jul 9, 2014
First Look: SOM's design for All Aboard Florida Fort Lauderdale rail station
The lightweight and luminous design "responds to its setting and creates a striking infrastructural icon for the city," said SOM Design Partner Roger Duffy.
| Jul 8, 2014
Frank Lloyd Wright's posthumous gas station opens in Buffalo
Eighty-seven years after Frank Lloyd Wright designed an ornamental gas station for the city of Buffalo, the structure has been built and opened to the public—inside an auto museum.
| Jul 7, 2014
7 emerging design trends in brick buildings
From wild architectural shapes to unique color blends and pattern arrangements, these projects demonstrate the design possibilities of brick.
| Jul 2, 2014
Emerging trends in commercial flooring
Rectangular tiles, digital graphic applications, the resurgence of terrazzo, and product transparency headline today’s commercial flooring trends.
| Jun 30, 2014
San Antonio green lights multimodal transit center
The new 90,000-sf development will principally service San Antonio’s growing network of city bus and VIA PRIMO bus rapid transit service, including real-time arrival updates, as well as become an iconic public plaza for the city.
| Jun 30, 2014
Research finds continued growth of design-build throughout United States
New research findings indicate that for the first time more than half of projects above $10 million are being completed through design-build project delivery.
| Jun 30, 2014
Arup's vision of the future of rail: driverless trains, maintenance drones, and automatic freight delivery
In its Future of Rail 2050 report, Arup reveals a vision of the future of rail travel in light of trends such as urban population growth, climate change, and emerging technologies.
