BIG has unveiled updated plans for a new transportation hub in the heart of the Swedish city of Västerås. Named the Västerås Travel Center, the 17,000-square-meter structure will bring together all of the city’s transport infrastructure in one continuous landscape, under a dramatic, curved roof.
BIG has proposed a building that unites rather than separates functions. It will serve as the central station for trains and buses while providing a bridge between the city center and the nearby Lake Mälaren, areas currently divided by train tracks. The preliminary plan for the project was initially revealed in 2015. Central to the updated design is a more distinct roof that serves to welcome visitors to the city at multiple points while giving the travel center a clear identity. It is a roof that spreads out, invites from all directions, and creates spatial contexts.
"We have designed the defining feature of Västerås Travel Center, the floating roof, as a rolling, light stratus cloud that shelters the travellers and landscape," says BIG partner David Zahle. "Continuous in plan but changing in section, the roof opens the Travel Center to both the city side and the harbour side at the same time as it gathers around the traveller, serving to protect, collect and invite visitors."
The roof’s shape is also prominent from within the building. A zigzag line cut in the roof gives the ceiling a draped appearance, which is accentuated by smoothly curved timber slats. This structural feature also allows light to penetrate the interior, circulates air, and eliminates the need for interior pillars that would obstruct people’s movement.
The Västerås Travel Center will be wrapped in a curved, glazed facade, which will blur the boundary between indoors and outdoors. Terraces and outdoor meeting spaces enhance the hub’s connection to surrounding parks.
In addition to doubling the size of the current bus terminal, the new transport hub will include a bicycle garage, travel services, commercial areas, restaurants, offices, event areas, and exhibition spaces.
"The Travel Center is designed as a piece of social infrastructure, shaped for the flow of people and public life," says BIG founder Bjarke Ingels. "We wanted to celebrate movement and create a welcoming, warm and transparent mobility hub that becomes an important social and economic node redefining the city's infrastructure and landscape."
Construction of Västerås Travel Center is set to begin in 2022 and is expected to be completed in 2025.
14 Comments
"Frei Otto ... with WOOD. GO!"
You can see the corporate meeting where they come up with these inert and soulless proposals
Anyone else notice that this has essentially been the scheme for the last 3 or 4 BIG proposals for cultural competitions? Someone let Bjarke build this thing so he can scratch the itch and stop trying to rip HDM's Elbphilharmonie roof profile.
They're big enough now, with a heavy overhead, to reduce their design catalogue to 3 or 4 main types to select from. BIG is almost the same scale as SOM nowadays, with their own engineering departments and a headcount far surpassing, say, the likes of KPF.
Would you say they've gotten rather large? Or maybe BIG?
Sustainability was apparently not a BIG part of the program.
It's made out of wood ... of course its sustainable lol
Looks a bit too saggy for my taste, what if they'd turn the roof upside down?
is there... structure?
Super skinny and long vierendeel trusses? XD.
They have a somewhat hit and miss history with renderings matching up with their built work. I suspect this will get much heavier, at least at the openings in the roof, They show columns, but they would require long spans, which could probably be achieved by bulking up the roof. The space could still be really nice though.
yes- right now it literally looks like a thing wood crisp supported by a curtain wall.
Structural zig-zags, bitches!
maybe it's a pneumatic structure lol
It's supported by the hot air in the PR.
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