EUROPEAN ROAD TRIP 11/02/07

Words :: Will Jones // Images :: Christian Richters, Kenny Fraser

A massive, elongated organic form, lifeless and bleached of colour lies prone in a desolate landscape. Like some discarded dinosaur bone, strewn in the sun scorched desert, this man-made anomaly is shocking, out of the ordinary, even otherworldly. But that is everything that it’s not. This outlandish structure is in fact a bus stop, potentially the most mundane of built forms. It provides shelter for passengers and bus company officials at the interchange between road and rail travel on the outskirts of the town of Hoofddorp in the Netherlands.
Named The Amazing Whale Jaw by its creator, Dutch architectural practice, NIO Architecten, the shelter is one of the most radical assertions that transport-related architecture has come of age. Once, travel was viewed as a luxury and the buildings that were associated with it, as palaces promoting an exciting adventure - think of the Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal at New York’s JFK Airport, or almost any Victorian era railway station.
However, as it became more affordable and so accessible to everyone, the buildings that catered for the travelling masses took on a more functional rationale. Airports became vast human processing halls, where queues stretched for check-in, security, burgers and boarding. Rail stations eschewed drama and decoration in favour of retail malls and longer platforms. And road travel, favourite of the upwardly mobile masses, depended on the flat-roofed canopy of the gas station and convenience of a faceless service station [a rest stop with gas pumps, cafes and shops etc on motorways in the UK].
NIO Architecten’s unusual addition to the flat Dutch landscape is meant as a wake-up call to both the public and fellow designers. The Whale Jaw’s design and manufacture was an experiment from start to finish and the architect believes it to be the only polystyrene building in the world. The building’s form was cut from blocks of expanded polystyrene foam in a factory: then, to add strength, a tough outer coat and greater rigidity, layers of polyester were sprayed onto the lightweight structure.
This coating had to be field tested to ensure that it couldn’t be damaged by vandals using knives, fire or solvent from spray paints. The whole thing is bolted to shallow concrete pad foundations via steel plates inserted in its underside. Maurice Nio, practice principal, smiles when he is asked about the meaning or relevance of the design and public perception of it. “Like the face of a geisha, every opinion or image can be projected on to the building,” he says. “And yet, it has no answers of its own and no need for them.”
However, architecture and design has an important influence on our everyday lives. The Whale Jaw may have no answers but its designer should realise its relevance in the revitalisation of the public realm and importance simply for making people stop, stare and wonder.
In Offenburg, Germany, Ingenhoven Architekten has tackled another architectural outcaste: it has made the multi-storey car park beautiful. The structure of the building is a mix of steel and concrete. Cars travel up a spiralling ramp to spaces marked out in white paint on five levels. Nothing new there then, but this car park is like no other. It is cylindrical, 60 metres in diameter, and clad in an exquisite façade of round Oregon pine poles suspended on stainless steel cables.
The design is not an outlandish statement like the Dutch bus stop: it is a piece of precisely detailed German architecture. The dense and yet wonderfully light timber façade is wind permeable, allowing breezes to blow away exhaust fumes, while sunlight filters through creating a dappled shadow on the relatively light-filled interior. Ingenhoven Architekten has created an iconic building out of possibly the most utilitarian of built forms.
Architects have always influenced the style of our built environment but they are now also becoming important arbiters of our environmental conscience. And, there can be no sector more at pressure to assert some sustainable credentials than transport. In the UK, densely populated areas and relatively short distances between urban conurbations mean that public transport is seen as a solution. But, while environmentally friendly architecture has a new set of ideals, that doesn’t mean it can’t look great.
British architect Arup Associates’ Vauxhall Cross Interchange is a transport hub in the nation’s capital city, connecting bus passengers to the London Underground. Its striking aesthetic features an undulating 200 metre long ribbon, clad in stainless steel. This forms bus shelters and access points to the underground train connections. Under the ribbon, small stand alone buildings, lean in the direction of travel, their forms hinting at the a design classic, the Airstream Caravan. On top of the ribbon, where it shoots skyward, are arrays of photovoltaic panels, which collect energy for use in powering the interchange’s lighting and PA systems.
The architect has also worked to ensure that the structure is socially responsible. Crime in and around the interchange is deterred through the use of cctv cameras, intelligently placed lighting, the provision of well defined sight lines and material transparency right across the busy site. This building also has an environmental and social conscience.

For the Full Article, Pick up Issue 5 +

Return

Pictures:

Details: