Rotterdam Central Station
Rotterdam is to get a new Central Station. This
is to be re-anchored in the city centre and integrated in the European network
of transport hubs created by the arrival of the high speed rail system (HSL).
So a Grand Station of international standing is required.
In the design, the city is drawn to the
new station by compacting the small-scale urban fabric round about so that
railway zone and city become a single entity. The finer texture with its new
sight lines and the mix of living and working will greatly improve the social
climate of this zone.
On entering the tall light-filled
station concourse, travellers have an overall view and see at once where the
trains are. The sunken and widened passage beneath the tracks is a natural
continuation of the concourse. Platforms have a largely transparent roof some 250 metres long spanning
the entire track zone.
The entrance on Spoorsingel is a modest
one in keeping with the low-key residential area there and the smaller
passenger flow. In stark contrast, the tall glass and timber concourse on the
city side is clearly the main gateway to the metropolitan city centre. The new
building's shape expresses the internal logistics of this transport hub.
Marking the onset of Rotterdam's
'cultural axis', the new Grand Central Station points the way to the city's
heart.
Client
Gemeentewerken Rotterdam, Prorail
Architect
Team CS: a cooperation of Benthem
Crouwel Architekten, Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten and West 8 urban design
& landscape architecture
Gross floor area
40.000 m²
Start
design
2003
Start
construction
2007
Completion
2014
