Europaconcorsi

Integration infrastructure and landscape
We no longer live in a culture where travel is an event: for most of us, travel has become a routine. The design of the new Vesuvio Est station therefore does not need to monumentalize travel. The design challenge of this project will be how to articulate the new station within its rural context.

The site of the station presents two unique features. Firstly, the area where the station will be built is a beautiful agricultural landscape with views of Mount Vesuvius. Approaches by train or car to the station enjoy this amazing setting. In order to integrate the station infrastructure with the landscape and avoid a monumental approach, we have developed the station as a horizontal plane with a minimum footprint and embedded it with a spatiality closer to a piece of landscape than an enclosed object.

The second unique feature of the site is that it presents the new station with two train lines which pass through the landscape at two different levels, and perpendicularly to one another. We have approached this siting of the train lines as an opportunity to locate the station at a level in-between, so that passengers are equally connected to both levels and are presented with uninterrupted views of the trains and the landscape upon arrival or departure. Upon entering the station, both train levels would be in visual reach. Upon arrival via either train line, the other train lines as well as the concourse level would be in visual reach. This direct connection between people and trains and between people and the landscape are the main features of our design for Vesuvio Est Station. Locating the station

In order to bring the landscape and trains to people as immediately as possible, we have located the station at the intersection of the high speed and local trains on the north-east side of the site. This location allows the station to remain compact and closely accessible to both train lines. The rectangular station building is designed wider along the length of the high speed and narrower along the orientation of the local rail. This orientation allows visitors to look through the station towards Mount Vesuvius – they will see both the arrival of the high speed rail and the area’s natural beauty as a back drop.

Station circulation
The small size of this station presents a rare opportunity to make direct visual connections between people and trains which makes way-finding straightforward and intuitive by including trains as a crucial part of the experience of the station. Given that the high speed trains and local trains are at levels +7.0 and +0.0 respectively, the station concourse is arranged along a split level. The main entry concourse is designed at +3.5m, midway between the two train levels. It serves all passengers without bias by making both the high speed and the local train equally accessible. It splits into lower and upper concourse levels. The lower concourse area is dedicated to the local trains and the underpass that links to the west side platform of the AC/AV line. The upper concourse hosts restaurants, cafes and access to the east side AC/AV line platform. The roof over the station concourse echoes the two important routes in the station and highlights the passengers’ visibility across the concourse to both the AC/AV and Cirucumvisuviana lines; the sloping down of the roof from north to south and sloping up of the roof from east to west results in an undulating horizontal form that resonates with the gradual landscape of the surrounding foothills.

Parking
If built as a stand-alone multi-storey building, the parking structure as specified in the brief would be four times larger than the train station. Therefore, a significant effort must be made to minimize its impact on the site by shaping its height, disguising its form and incorporating it into the form of the station itself. Our proposal utilizes terraced levels which are formed like an earth mound to camouflage the large parking volume as part of the existing landscape.

Structural Concept
As opposed to a large single span shed, which has a finite form and size, our proposal is to use a modular system, which is easily transported to the site and easily erected in small segments, to build the station.

These modular elements take on a tree-like form – branches of structure spring from the tops of columns and interlock with the branches from the adjacent canopy. The freestanding wooden canopy module finds lateral stability by interlocking with other canopy modules. Structurally, each tree helps to balance out the other and spreads the load across the shed roof. The system of interlocked modules takes on the form of a canopy of “trees”. As the size of each module is small – 9m x 18m- it allows for prefabricated assembly of most of the components off site and quick and easy assembly of the various components on site. The small size of the prefabricated units that form each tree canopy structure allow for transportation to the site by train or lorry. Therefore the station can expand easily in phases.

The proposed module covers an area of 18m x 9 m. In phase 1, this is repeated 21 times to produce the station, covering an area of 3400 m2. In phase two a further 6 modules are repeated to cover an additional area of 970 m2 for the station. In phase three, another 3 modules are added to produce the required 490 m2 in this phase. Consequently, growth can be handled in small increments easily and can change size in future if needed. Most importantly, this modular approach ensures that the station image is complete in all its phases and does not depend on future extensions.