Central Station Liberec

RE4 – Czech-Belgian project of the Liberec transferium
Team C - Corneel Schepens, Kaat Balcaen, Markéta Novotná, Bart Dupont, Václav Hájek
Atelier Liberec, Faculty of Arts and Architecture TUL, WS 2011/12

The concept of the Liberec station area can be explained in two different ways. On the one hand, it concludes the four dimensions (depth, height, width, and time), and on the other hand, it summarizes the idea of RE-unite, RE-connect, RE-use, and RE-integrate.

Because the Liberec railway station has become a barrier, dividing the city into two halves, we would like to re-unite these parts. By re-connecting the streets in different selected patterns and layers, on different scales, the area can grow back together rather in places to stay or meet and use, instead of solely fast infrastructural corridors and dynamic axes. The site will still function as a railway station, expanded with a various mix of supporting and enhancing functions, with current local barriers re-integrated as benefits for their environment.

This area has to be created as a second city center linked and connected to the current one, while complementing each other as respectively an economic, financial, functional, and residential center and respectively commercial and historical center. This new center is designed on three scales. On the micro scale, the design should create passages and local roads for nearby inhabitants. The meso scale provides a new transportation hub for renewed city bus and tram connections, because currently these are used poorly at the railway site causing congestions in the historical city functioning as the main transportation center. The macro or biggest scale accentuates the fast and long-distance connections provided by the railway for the entire city of Liberec and further. These scales are translated as local connecting (oriented) axes elongated between existing streets filled in with a pedestrian network, a city boulevard that provides a renewed and more direct tram/bus/car connection while considering existing networks/stops, and a railway strip that combines all the important infrastructure together on the location of the transferium building/landmark.

Because of the topography of the land and the idea of reallocating and combining the highway with other infrastructures, the terrain will be excavated at different levels, with the train tracks at their original height. To specify this project, two distinct conditions/elements are provided. A landmark should strengthen and correspond with the current Jested icon and provide orientation to the site and to the city, while a grouped infrastructural axis on and under the elevated railway strip gives a certain direction to the rest of the design.

Along this marked strip, building blocks are positioned, taking into account a mix of functions and possibilities to phase the project. Larger and more public functions are creating a buffer between the train rail and rather residential functions, such as grouped housing, hotels, service flats, apartments, and university dormitories. These are thought to flow into the surrounding landscape (existing residential or new integrated green zones). Underneath the strip/railway station, commercial functions create a pathway to connect certain functions or the two ends of the marked site. Other retail functions are located on the edge of pedestrian and/or car walkways to create little squares addressed on the scale of its environment.

Functions: university, free spaces for recreation, recreational green highline, square, offices, spaces for young starters, shops, grouped housing (rather small scale), service flats, hotel, apartments, administration, storage, functions of the needed transportation, …

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Bc. Václav Hájek - Reconstruction of the railway station area in Liberec
atelier: Prof. Ing.arch. akad.arch. Jiří Suchomel / assistant: Ing.arch. Martin Šaml
Faculty of Arts and Architecture TUL, WS 2011/12, 2nd year of the master's program

I perceive the area of the Liberec station as a barrier that divides Liberec into two halves. The impermeability of this area is caused by the expressway and especially the freight and passenger station. Currently, this area can be crossed in several places, but due to its unappealingness, these passages are used very rarely. The current state of the area does not allow for a better connection between both parts of Liberec.

Starting Points
In the landscape morphology of Liberec, it is very difficult to find a better variant regarding the route of the expressway. Therefore, in the project, I left the expressways where they are and directed my attention toward seeking other possible routes that would open up this area and connect both parts of Liberec.

Initiating Steps
The first necessary step to improve this situation would be the relocation of the freight station and transshipment center to the current industrial zones. This would significantly reduce the number of tracks required for passenger transport and create a newly usable area with great economic potential for the city of Liberec. At the station's site, two imaginary axes of human movement (dynamic axis and calm axis) intersect, and therefore, this area is ideal for the economic development of the city. Another desirable step would be to complete the inner city ring road and reduce the exits and entrances to the expressway. The proposal is based on these aforementioned assumptions.

Concept
Since there are no more historically valuable buildings on the site, aside from the old station building and a few adjacent buildings, I decided in the design to preserve only the old station building. As I have already mentioned, the design primarily focuses on creating new connections between both parts of the city from the perspective of motorized and non-motorized transport. Since I want this area to develop into a new main transit center, it is important to situate in this new center also the other functions that are currently unfortunately located in shopping centers on the outskirts of the city and divert people from the center. At the same time, this area is suitable for the development of other functions, such as research in the field of nanotechnology or "incubators" for students and graduates of the University, housing, administration, etc. The number of park-and-ride lots that are part of the area proposal is also an important aspect that could significantly reduce personal transport in the historical city center in the future, as it offers an ideal location for transfers to other modes of urban and intercity transport. I believe that the current potential of this site is significantly underutilized, and through this project, I have tried to illustrate possible solutions for this important area.

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Petra Rosová and Aleš Vojkůvka - Central Station Liberec
atelier: Prof. Ing.arch. akad.arch. Jiří Suchomel / assistant: Ing.arch. Martin Šaml
Faculty of Arts and Architecture TUL, WS 2011/12, 4th year of the bachelor's program

Assignment
Urban considerations carried out while searching for a vision for Liberec repeatedly point to the area of today's station as a key place for the further possible development of the city. Its new arrangement should enable the connection of the two parts of the city, today divided by the lines of the railway and the expressway, and offer fundamentally new connections between long-distance and local public transport with individual car transportation. At the same time, this hub could be a place for the creation of a new urban center with a number of other functions.

Author's Report
The city "in front of the station" and "behind the station". A mental barrier is the impetus to create a new center of Liberec, a central transfer station, linking newly built residential districts and connecting the historical center toward the peak of Ještěd. From the Vision for Liberec documents, we adopt ideas for the future development of the city such as relocating commercial zones to the center, moving industry and freight stations to the outskirts of the city, a collector road, and utilizing the surrounding areas of the Nisa River. Unfortunate land use of the station in the center is revitalized into an attractive neighborhood for housing with beautiful views and all services, including transportation. Why live in the suburbs when comfortable healthy living can also be created in the city center?
From the identified weaknesses of the city, we create 5 points of the concept that define our proposal.
1/ We create a transferium at one point (railway, bus and tram transport, road transport R35, connection to the city's collector road, taxi and travelators) with the shortest possible transfers and a wide range of additional services.
2/ We work with the terrain. The existing railway, aside from its narrowing, is covered by a 6-meter-high tunnel, which is raised by 2 meters of construction filled with soil for a future park. In the "center - Ještěd" axis, we deepen the area and place commercial spaces beneath the station, simultaneously situated on the suburbs of Liberec. At the same time, it serves as a central transport transfer and a pleasant passage for pedestrians between the districts. Two-thirds of the excavated soil is used to raise the tunnel by the aforementioned meters, and new buildings are constructed directly on the terrain and covered with soil (underground floors are created without further unnecessary digging).
3/ We preserve 4 towers of the old station building and transform them into 4 new glass landmarks of Liberec. Their differing heights define mass balance in relation to the surroundings and the position of a direct view of the television transmitter Ještěd.
4/ We support historical axes. Static in the direction of "center - Ještěd" and dynamic in the direction of "Babylon - viaducts". The access path to the station for pedestrians is moved to a more pleasant area with a less demanding exit toward the Nisa. The street "1. Máje" is preserved but is not considered primary for pedestrians.
5/ As the main point, we understand the division of a large area into smaller parts and their gradual revitalization. The station is no longer a freight one. The facilities of the district, greenery, and access from all places guarantee its attractiveness, among other things, for foreign tourists. The area should include housing, comprising more than half of the built-up area, an office park, a hotel with a conference center, park, commercial, and cultural spaces.