One thing I really like about rail systems, particularly underground rail systems, is the ability of the stations to become key parts of the urban fabric – key public spaces that help define a city. Some systems around the world have used this potential with spectacular results. Here are a few photos of Swedish subway systems – courtesy of this website where there are many more amazing photos.
Imagine how cool it would be if our three underground stations (Midtown, K Road and Newton) ended up look something like these photos?
8 comments
Leave a Reply
Processing...
I love the looks of those stations. Maybe Auckland could have a different theme at each station. One could be darkened like the above, with night time forest sounds, like Moreporks. Another could be light and breezy with a beach theme, and another perhaps something to do with volcanoes?
Awesome stations and it would be really cool to have something similar but I can’t see it happening, with so much pressure on the cost of the tunnel I imagine that we will be keeping ours to the bare essentials even though it would probably have a much greater impact on patronage. The only thing going for us is that ARTA did some great design with Newmarket and New Lynn so hopefully AT carry that on. Another thing is, I imagine that this could only be done with certain types of rock, would it be compatible with what we have or would we need lots of concrete to support the thing?
Those are dead cool!!! Is it bare rock or have they covered it with textured concrete or something? What’s the rock like under Auckland CBD? Solid, volcanic rubbish, or some sort of dirt?
Yup, the Stockholm geology, like most of the rest of Sweden, is granite rocks.
I remember reading it in the CBD tunnel study of about 5 years ago but it doesn’t talk about it in the latest study. The northern end is obviously reclamation so is pretty soft, then from memory Albert St up to Mt Eden is sandstone which is great for tunneling then at the Mt Eden end is hard volcanic rock which will be difficult but I don’t know if the Newton station would be below that or not. The volcanic stuff will definitely be tricky to build the portals in.
That’s a shame. I think the rough rock texture is striking, whether it has a man made layer over it or not. Easy to do with granite, but I presume that sandstone is just too crumbly and we’ll end up with straight edges and thick concrete designed to stop the whole structure collapsing inwards.
Still, I’ll have to add Stockholm to my list of places to visit.
While I think those images above are COOL, I do not think they are PLEASANT. They remind me too much of FPS shooter game levels. More light and less heavy please.
Actually, I think we have a fair chance of getting nice stations. There are only a small number of them, so adding a little bit of design and some extra cubic meters of space here and there is unlikely to break the bank.
Interesting designs – would go down well in Disneyland or an indie movie set. I’ve been to Stockholm but don’t recall the underground stations having these designs, from recall they were all pretty standard.
Seriously though – anything like this would be difficult to maintain, clean graffiti off etc, and would become dated quickly. Take a look at St Petersburg, Vienna, Barcelona for ideas.