KØGE TRAIN STATION
The architectural studio, Kengo Kuma and Associates (Tokyo), has requested the creation of a series of planes to render a project in competition for the design of the new Køge train station for New Line Copenhagen-Ringsted in Denmark.
The goal was to be able to visually describe the project in its entirety, highlighting the main issues.
The historic city of Køge is contained between the seaside and the transportation corridor composed by the SBanen railway, the Køge Bay Motorway and the future F-Banen high-speed railway, in which all of them run parallel to the sea on this part of the territory. And now the city of Køge is ready to expand towards the West by jumping over this intense transportation corridor. This project which concerns us is one of the first steps for the westward expansion.
The historic city of Køge is contained between the seaside and the transportation corridor composed by the SBanen railway, the Køge Bay Motorway and the future F-Banen high-speed railway, in which all of them run parallel to the sea on this part of the territory. And now the city of Køge is ready to expand towards the West by jumping over this intense transportation corridor. This project which concerns us is one of the first steps for the westward expansion.
In this mission of stitching both sides of Køge over the transportation barrier, we understand this bridge-station has to become a connector not only in terms of purely pedestrian flow, but also to become one recognizable and common element of identity from both sides of the city. The experience of walking along this 300 meter long bridge-station has to be as pleasant and easy as possible, hence not only it encourages the use of reaching the railways but also to become part of the usual urban promenade from one side of the city to the other. Bending this diagonal trace with a slight curve will avoid this long bridge becoming an endless tunnel as views will always open in front of us bringing a panoramic quality to the pedestrians’ experience. Due to the aforementioned aims, it is our will which the bridge and the two train stations would be conceived and appear as one sole architectural element.
One element that, as one brush stroke, would trace the territory organizing it… and the Roof is indeed the common element that is able to shelter all the complexity beneath it – the bridge walking path, the station stairs, escalators and elevators, the vehicular drop-offs, bus stops, the bicycles racks, waiting areas, etc. The architectural operation is very simple: while covering the whole span of the bridge from East to West, the double-pitched Roof would extend at a consistent angle towards the ground floor creating the necessary station sheltered areas. In this way the two train stations do not appear independent from the bridge, they would appear as an expanded segment of its section. The complexity of the whole project suddenly appears gently as one single element, one train station instead of two.
