High-speed train station in Liège
Liege-Guillemins Station
At the same time as the rise of automotive transport, the advantages of individual transportation are diminishing not only in city centers, where after spending time in traffic jams it is hard to find a free parking spot, but also over longer distances. In Western Europe, interwoven with high-speed rail lines, trains can successfully compete with air travel.
At the Liège-Guillemins station, which was built in 1905 for the World Expo, trains such as ICE and TGV can now stop following a renovation and fully benefit from the strategic location of Walloon Liège, allowing for quick connections to Brussels (48 min), Cologne (1h), Paris (2h), and London (3h).
The design of the new station was entrusted to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in 1996, who has long-standing experience with transportation buildings. Besides sculpturally designed bridges, he is also responsible for a number of unforgettable railway stations in France, Switzerland, and the USA. Calatrava's work can be perceived as an engineering mannerism squeezing the client's budget, but it must be admitted that the buildings leave visitors in awe.
The station in Liège serves 36,000 passengers daily who use one of the five covered platforms. The glass steel structure creates an elegant arch with a span of 145 meters. Underneath the tracks, commercial passages reconnect city areas that were previously separated by the railway.
Calatrava aimed to create a station without a façade, thereby allowing for a better connection with the city. The station is a new gateway to the city, restoring relationships between urban areas and simultaneously creating a new city symbol. Calatrava designed the station for 21st-century travel, connecting the city with the rest of Europe.
In addition to Belgium, in recent years we have witnessed significant investments in transport hubs in Dutch railways and nearby Austria. Let us be surprised when a similar trend arrives in the Czech Republic (and it will not just be visions).
"My goal was to create a building that reflects the new station's potential significance as a high-speed inter-urban link between Europe's cities. I imagined a building without facades with a soaring roof above offering protection from the elements (particularly the ever present rain of the Belgian Winter).
This could maintain the views through and of the station. The vaulted shape was a natural development of this vision while the soft (perhaps feminine) undulating curve of the roof was selected to mimic the graceful rise and fall of the Cointe hills beyond. I felt that there was no better way to celebrate the technological achievement of the TGV trains than to expose the working platforms and the dynamism of the moving ensemble of passengers and trains."
At the Liège-Guillemins station, which was built in 1905 for the World Expo, trains such as ICE and TGV can now stop following a renovation and fully benefit from the strategic location of Walloon Liège, allowing for quick connections to Brussels (48 min), Cologne (1h), Paris (2h), and London (3h).
The design of the new station was entrusted to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in 1996, who has long-standing experience with transportation buildings. Besides sculpturally designed bridges, he is also responsible for a number of unforgettable railway stations in France, Switzerland, and the USA. Calatrava's work can be perceived as an engineering mannerism squeezing the client's budget, but it must be admitted that the buildings leave visitors in awe.
The station in Liège serves 36,000 passengers daily who use one of the five covered platforms. The glass steel structure creates an elegant arch with a span of 145 meters. Underneath the tracks, commercial passages reconnect city areas that were previously separated by the railway.
Calatrava aimed to create a station without a façade, thereby allowing for a better connection with the city. The station is a new gateway to the city, restoring relationships between urban areas and simultaneously creating a new city symbol. Calatrava designed the station for 21st-century travel, connecting the city with the rest of Europe.
In addition to Belgium, in recent years we have witnessed significant investments in transport hubs in Dutch railways and nearby Austria. Let us be surprised when a similar trend arrives in the Czech Republic (and it will not just be visions).
"My goal was to create a building that reflects the new station's potential significance as a high-speed inter-urban link between Europe's cities. I imagined a building without facades with a soaring roof above offering protection from the elements (particularly the ever present rain of the Belgian Winter).
This could maintain the views through and of the station. The vaulted shape was a natural development of this vision while the soft (perhaps feminine) undulating curve of the roof was selected to mimic the graceful rise and fall of the Cointe hills beyond. I felt that there was no better way to celebrate the technological achievement of the TGV trains than to expose the working platforms and the dynamism of the moving ensemble of passengers and trains."
Santiago Calatrava
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