Jan Cretskens
“Stationsgebeuren” Roermond. PHL Diepenbeek (Belgium)
To have the neighbourhood of the station (11 rails cause a serious break between the old city centre and the new expansion) renewed by 2030, 11 rails are reduced to 2 rails, which are lifted in the air so that new relations can arise.
Just like the old city and the expansion join at the railway-viaduct, both of the grids, structuring the free space for new buildings and green, merge at the new station. At this place a new centre arises: a mixture of catering, trade and housing, where the new station also belongs on account of the construction of the railway-viaduct.
A divided arch construction with railways on top provides a certain lightness and becomes a place and symbol of circulation in the whole station area: under the rails and vertical between the underground car park, ground level and platform. Around such an arch construction, 'the bridge which lifts up the fraction', arises the station in the middle of the city centre.
The concept of the station unfolds in the cross section: 'the train stopping at the platform'. The secondary functions such as shops and restaurants are placed at the car park level so that they don't interfere with the lightness of the arch, which cause the activity-square to be placed in a slope. This makes the station very open and spreads it over different levels. Thus, it becomes rather a 'station-happening' than a building, the more so because there's no traditional front towards the town, the station is in the centre of it. To accent the construction and the density at the entrance of the city, the platform-constructions are placed closer to one another, towards the central axis of the station.
Lightness, transparency, openness, central location, frontless, activity, diversion of function, busyness, fastness, different circulation-methods, communication, rest and relaxation provides a new and still unknown 'station-happening'.
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