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trans sedentary travel “…a train is an
extraordinary bundle of relationships because it is something through
which one goes, it is also something by means of which one can go from
one point to another, and then it is also something that goes by”. Project Brief The design studio focused on the proposed rail link between Melbourne and Tullamarine Airport. Five points of connection were established at Spencer Street Station, Tullamarine Airport and three locations along the line. A group of students investigated the potentialities of the intermediate stops providing a rail station and additional programs at each point. The additional programs were required to augment the functions of embarking on a journey, or alternatively breaking the journey temporarily. The rail link would therefore provide an additional service to commuters living in the surrounding environment. This project focuses specifically on the rail station located at the Tullamarine Freeway and Western Ring Road intersection. The design seeks to understand the various levels of movement occurring within the environment, their relationships and the potentials to inform the architectural process and language. Additional programs at the site consist of a hostel connecting travelers to regional and interstate bus services and a library for travelers that also supports growing residential development in the surrounding area. The Melbourne bound entry/exit building at the rail station connects to these programs around an open public forecourt. This also provides access to the regional and interstate bus terminal and car parking facilities. Site [A corridor for the car] The Tullamarine Freeway and Western Ring Road establishes a corridor of linear movement. The surrounding environment is cut by the road system, a space in which travelling towards a destination is primary and immediate urban connection secondary. Scale and perception are fixed at the speed of a travelling car: 100km/h. Existing roadside landscaping responds to these conditions. Visiting the site as a pedestrian [or commuter] reveals a spatial expansiveness and vastness of scale that is unknown from the confines of a moving vehicle. Framework [transient and sedentary movement] Two short exercises ‘Making space distinct’ and ‘Blurring space’ were used to explore the urban context at Spencer Street Station and the proposed site. These investigations were derived from Tschumi’s concepts of the pyramid [space as a conceptual whole] and the labyrinth [the experience of moving through space]. Video footage, photography and sound recordings were used to document events over varying time periods at both locations. The analysis revealed two initial levels at which to explore movement: Macro level:
large scale movement systems and infrastructure However, the modes of analysis became blurred during situations in which the body interacts directly with macro levels of movement. These conditions were therefore extended to notions of the transient and the sedentary; the physical movement of the body and the body at rest, contained within a moving object. The media implemented also revealed a heightened level of variation in the daily events occuring within the documented spaces that are generally portrayed as repetitive and banal. These initial exercises established a framework for the design. Program The entry/exit buildings located in both directions of traffic flow act as markers. They identify the points at which access to the subway space and platform occurs. The Melbourne bound entry/exit building also contains a transit lounge and station administration facilities. Subway spaces present a problem of navigation within the immediate and broader environment. Located beneath the ground plane, many of the visual signs used to orientate the body in the surrounding environment are removed. The paths of linear events that occur above the surface have been ‘mapped’ onto the ceiling of the subway space. This re-orientates commuters to the macro levels of movement that are occurring at the platform level and road surface. The structural system from the platform, envelope and freeway are carried through into the subway and further reinforce the above conditions. The floor of the subway is inscribed with surface treatments that demarcate zones of activity and movement at the micro level. A central pliant strip is embedded into the surface of the commuter platform. This allowed for the insertion and development of programmatic requirements and the control of movement zones along the platform. It also marks the points at which vertical transportation connects the platform to the subway space. The envelope enclosing the platform presents two sets of spatial experiences in relation to airport and city bound travel. Airport bound vehicles, trains and commuters experience a sequence of open and closed systems along the envelope, through variation of the cladding ‘plates’. This establishes a relationship between the different forms of linear movement occurring on the freeway and platform. The Melbourne bound facade is a continual plane of double-glazing covered in an opaque film to reduce sunlight. Directional text is inscribed onto the surface, orientated towards commuters occupying the platform. This reestablishes both the location of Melbourne and the airport after emerging from the subway space and the objective of travelling towards a destination. Viewed from the position of a moving car, the text becomes abstracted through speed, its meaning potentially revealed through repetitive freeway travel. The steel structural system supporting the platform envelope allows parametric variation that enabled the form and structure to develop within the design process. Variations in Perception The development of various movement systems and the interaction of the body with these developments have dramatically altered our perception of space. Train travel and the proliferation of car culture reveal other ways of understanding and experiencing everyday day events and provide the possibility of connection to places beyond previous geographical boundaries. The rail station as a point in a linear journey establishes a relationship between commuters and the passage of trains and freeway traffic derived from the implications of these emergent conditions. |