giuliani.hönger architekten
Station and station square St. Gallen
best architects 20
public buildings
Place
St. Gallen, Switzerland
Studio
Photos
David Willen
Description
The
existing urban space of the station square is characterised by its historic
stone architecture. The new aboveground interventions in the arrivals hall and
waiting rooms were developed as light steel structures in line with the
Japanese term «Akari», which means brightness, light and weightlessness. The
new arrivals hall occupies the formerly empty space and completes the spatial setting
in accordance with its model, the «Piazza delle Erbe» in Verona. At the same
time, the arrivals hall slightly projects out into the square, highlights the
actual point of arrival and departure by differentiating itself from the convex
façade of the station and so creates a new focal point.
The interior, which is bathed in light during the day and forms a shining cube
at night, provides orientation. It also appropriately expresses the transition from
the town to the world of rail, as well as the transit to
other, different modes of transport. The waiting rooms with their translucent
roofs, for their part, create bright, shadowless and pleasant waiting areas
and, at night, their artificial light turns them into safe places offering good
orientation. The renovation of the two pedestrian underpasses provides suitable
spatial connections to the platforms as well as to the north-western part of
town.