Amsterdam Zuid Station Place of transitional moments of life / Matteo Meschiari

Institution: TUDelft

Function: Train Station

Site Location: Amsterdam Zuid

Year: 2015

Amsterdam Zuid:
a business district;
a new residential area;
a campus;
yet an anonymous public space.
A river of railways divides the place in two. People leaving, people arriving, people passing by. People staying.
People living!

West Facade perspective view

Hail and Farewell

Places of great transition often bring a definition of public interiors, where a sequence of spaces accompanies the movement and stir socio-public life. As such, train stations are often an important infrastructural, but also socio-public, medium. Hence, the delicate but strict transition dictated by the station and the Zuidas passage, connecting the two sides of Amsterdam Zuid, leads to a severe and rational intervention: a clear definition of edges towards the context and an anatomical orchestration of movement through a sequence of spaces that trigger the public interior life.

Side view of the model

Yet, despite the transient nature of the place, a megalithic monumentality and a precise materiality attempts to evoke human emotional sensibility and to tickle memories inducing ‘a sense of unrooted belonging’ in the public anonymity and transience of Amsterdam Zuid.

Plan

Model Overview

Atrium

Interior view

Interior view

View of the Station Hall

Cladding Materials

Materials

Interior View

Cross Section