On Monday 2 July the Masters Department will present the final proposals within this assignment to NS.
There are few places in the world that are more vibrant with life than railway stations. Every day, almost 24/7, thousands of people cross paths within this infrastructure node. They arrive. They leave. They dwell. They welcome and they bid farewell. One minute the hallway, the corridors and platforms are almost empty, silent, the next minute large crowds push through like blood streams through the human arteries. The ever changing nature of a railway station, as well as its many metaphorical references to themes like beginnings and endings, life and death, and the evasiveness of time passing by, turn railway stations into very challenging research topics for design students.
An extra challenge in this commission is the re-construction of the Eindhoven station. The usual flux of people has to be facilitated while construction workers are dealing with the pragmatics of their work. As a consequence all the in-between phases of the process need to be brooded on. Every phase needs to be designed in a clever way. For students this offers an excellent laboratory for experimenting both with practical and visionary views on ‘safety’, ‘informing the public’, and ‘continue to link the station to the city in the best way possible’.