dissolve
proposal for Warsaw national stadium traction substation
The proposal was delievered as a design change for the current substation project. Therefore it shall be treated as an addaptation of said design.
Up to a cpommon sense, a traction substation, as a support building, should have a form that might have disolved in it's surrounding. It should be a part of architecture of a background and not attract special attention due to its flashy form. On the other hand, however, it can be said that its location and positioning on the plot according to the adopted assumptions is a kind of contradiction of these principles - whatever happens, the substation is located next to such an important facility as the national stadium, close to the Warszawa Stadion station, and in addition - between two public transport hubs - for both trains and buses. This scenario leads to the situation in which the traction substation pavilion will always be exposed to some extent. Therefore, it should constitute a kind of fusion of the environment - draw from it and refer to it, while limiting its form to as simple and noble solutions as possible.
A - The gable roof of the "Marcowy Zając" restaurant adjacent to the substation with a partial reverse slope.
B - The semi-transparnt façade of the National Stadium appearing as an urban illusion of the cap on a railway embankment.
C - Metal and glass canopy of the Warszawa Stadion station towering over a pedestal made of vertical stone slabs.
D - The greenery of the neighboring plot is naturally divided into lower greenery constituting the foreground and higher greenery working as a background.
According to the above assumptions, instead of generating new urban themes, the building should use the existing ones and reinterpret them so that they appear charmingly. The facade of the facility should "disappear" in space, visually reflecting the area of the building and its surroundings. Considering the surrounding greenery (the slope of the railway embankment, the forested area on the opposite side of the street and single trees on the plot itself), it should also interact with it and, if possible, be absorbed by this greenery. One of the subtle urban details that emerged quite spontaneously in the vicinity of the plot is a specific vertical division of the components. This is not a very eye-catching motif, but once seen, it is impossible to ignore it when presenting the proposed solution for the façade of the newly designed traction substation. The design goal was, therefore, to capture both interesting individual elements of the surroundings and their common features, to weave the package of spatial stimuli into a common architectural form.
1.The structure body was lowered compared to the initial assumption. This made it possible to optically lighten the shape and make it seem slimmer. The height of the structure was unified with the height of the external walls separating the traction transformers
2.The base is covered with vertical panels with a semi-reflective surface - this solution allows the building to subtly blend in with the surroundings. Only the panels on the side of the traction transformers were replaced with boards to counteract electrical discharges.
3. Referring to the relationship between the stadium and the railway embankment, the substation body was enriched with a translucent cap made of polycarbonate panels in a skylight system. This provided light exchange between the interior and the surroundings.
4.The envelope was covered with a reversed gable roof referring to the "Marcowy Zając" restaurant building adjacent to the plot. Sloping, the metal roof also refers to the platforms of the Warszawa Stadion station located on the other side of the building, and its shape allows for free air circulation around the external traction transformers.
The walls of the building's podium are made of vertical coffers made of semi-polished steel sheets. By such a sollution a diffuse reflection effect was achieved, allowing the pavilion to be “blurred” by the surrounding greenery.
Polycarbonate panels were chosen to be used as a skylight due to their characterystics. The unique aesthetics maintains efficient functionality and protection against radiation. Thanks to the temperature resistance ranging from -40 to +115°C, they can be used in rooms exposed to significant temperature increases, such as trafostations. At the same time, they are up to 200 times more impact resistant than glass.
To obtain an interesting texture of the roof, which will be the main element visible from the windows of passing by trains, a roofing made of trapezoidal structural sheets with a large depth was used. Thanks to polishing, the plane gently reflects the nearby treetops and the sky, and its regular tectonics scatter the light, creating visual effect for the observer.
