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Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 98
PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RAILWAY TECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE
Edited by: J. Pombo
Paper 193

Contemporary Architecture: Station Design for the Diffuse Loci of Travel

E. Ginelli and L. Castiglioni

Department Building Environment Science and Technology (BEST), Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
E. Ginelli, L. Castiglioni, "Contemporary Architecture: Station Design for the Diffuse Loci of Travel", in J. Pombo, (Editor), "Proceedings of the First International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 193, 2012. doi:10.4203/ccp.98.193
Keywords: design, contemporary dwelling, small railway stations, sustainability, common good, sociality, public space.

Summary
Station design needs to be considered as a strategic target for new concepts in the design of dwellings. In the introduction of this paper, we discuss new models that have been proposed to demonstrate the processes and methods that will deliver quality dwellings as the main goal for city redevelopment. Learning from recent station modifications in some great cities, we focus on the design approach required for an innovative concept of diffuse stations as loci of travel. This approach also has a social factor relevant not only to the regeneration process of important stations, but also for small and medium stations. Station design is investigated from both the communities' point of view; and from the point of view of the value of station buildings' as loci of travel. The station buildings could assume an interesting role in the cities' transformation process.

The investigation of station design is demonstrated here by the use of students' project drawings, which investigate station design as a hub, for example: as a link to a green park of a historical city centre; or to other main services. Station design could overcome the dichotomous interpretation that divides public space (belonging to all; therefore to nobody) from private space (or property), in order to transform them into individual spaces (exclusive) and collective spaces (common good), emphasizing their social, economic and environmental character.

The results shown in this paper identify the technological approach to station design as a valuable tool for managing contemporary architecture in which the diffuse station is a new interpretation of the dwelling locus of travel. The centrality of the architectural approach is translatable into design awareness and methodological expertise. Technical planning for the feasibility of the work reveals that the overriding principle to address is the issue of the necessity to assume an operative value design method.

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