From "project of the future" to the best building in the "transportation" category. Designed by the {tag:pracownie} studio, the Metropolitan Railway Station in Lublin has once again made it to the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition. What is the most modern railway station in Poland and what can the jury appreciate it for?
The first concretized plans for the construction of a new railway station in Lublin could be heard about as early as 2013, when the City came into possession of a plot of land at the intersection of Dworcowa and Gazowa Streets, located a few dozen meters from Lublin's railway station. At the time, there was a concept of concentrating the most essential elements of transportation infrastructure under one roof - both city and long-distance buses, and additionally facilitating transfers between wheeled and rail modes of transport. Until now, buses stopped at the PKS Station, located within the Podzamcze area, where, in addition to a modernist building from the late 1960s, travelers were greeted by tin kiosks, a market and food stalls.
Lublin Metropolitan Railway Station in the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition
photo: Rafał Chojnacki
The City moved into action in 2017, when the tender for the design documentation for the new Metropolitan Station, under construction for the Lublin Functional Area, was announced. Less than four years later, construction of the facility, designed by the Tremend studio, began, and in January 2024 the Station welcomed its first travelers.
with flair
The 340-million-dollar investment resulted in a complex that, on 30,000 square meters, houses 43 departure stations for buses, both city and long-distance, 174 parking spaces for cars and dozens of bicycle racks. The main part of the Metropolitan Station is a three-story, cuboidal block of glass, hidden under a massive roof of almost 7 thousand square meters. Under the huge canopy, there was also space for public transportation stops and rest areas.
Lublin Metropolitan Railway Station in the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition
Photo: Rafał Chojnacki
we have Egypt at home
The most characteristic element of Lublin's transfer hub is certainly the massive pillars supporting the aforementioned canopy. Their openwork forms evoke a myriad of associations. While their massive proportions may resemble the supports of Egyptian hypostyle halls, according to the authors, inspiration can be sought much closer, in local folk cut-outs.
The first sketches we did were indeed inspired by the locality, i.e. these cut-outs. We started from a 2D plane - when you look at the pole from above, you can see the pattern of the cutouts. Then, when we started to create the 3D solid, a structure was created that was supposed to be a support for the station's roof, a support for the greenery, which will disappear over time, because it will be covered by vines," Magdalena Fedorowicz-Boule, president and creative director of the Tremend studio, said in an interview with Ola Kloc.
The roof supports are also reminiscent of works of contemporary architecture - comparisons have been made with Lisbon's Eastern Railway Station (designed by Santiago Calatrava) or Gardens by the Bay in Singapore (designed by Grant Associates, WillkinsonEyre).
Lublin Metropolitan Railway Station in the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition
photo: Rafał Chojnacki
green ambitions
The new communications center for the Lublin Functional Area was intended to be a thoroughly green building. Architects from the Tremend office used a number of solutions to help reduce the negative impact that the operation of the building has on the environment. That's quite fair, considering the enormity of the pollution generated by the vehicles hosted under its roof. The direct purification of the air from carbon dioxide, exhaust fumes and particulate matter is aided primarily by vegetation, which is an integral part of the new establishment. There are several more and less obvious places for it. As is common at train stations, the space surrounding the building is largely flooded with concrete. Nevertheless, around its main body, it has managed to compose several gardens filled with both tall and low plantings. Vegetation not only has a positive effect on air quality - the green squares help lower the temperature and, above all, help drain rainwater during heavy downpours.
The Metropolitan Railway Station in Lublin in the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition.
photo: Rafał Chojnacki
Plants at the Lublin Railway Station, however, are growing not only in the ground - vines are already starting to weave along the openwork pillars, and one of the walls of the new transportation center is overgrown with a vertical garden. Although the latter is not the most ecological way of covering the walls with vegetation, it certainly communicates the "green" program of Lublin's train station very well. Greenery is also found on its roof, whose slopes are open to travelers. On top of the Lublin station are recreational and leisure spaces.
Lublin Metropolitan Station in the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition.
Photo: Maciej Ruksza © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
railway station matrioshka
The most interesting pro-environmental solutions, however, are inscribed in the construction of the new station, which is based on the box-in-box idea. The building actually consists of two volumes, one of which surrounds the other, acting as a kind of second skin of the building. Only the first one is heated, which houses the rooms occupied by those working at the station, the quiet waiting room, the facility's service areas or sanitary facilities. It is enclosed by a spacious outdoor waiting room, where the temperature is slightly lower - in this part heat is provided by recuperation of energy spent on heating the station's internal spaces. The massive south wall of the building additionally accumulates heat during the day, giving it back later in the evening. In addition, the pro-environmental character of the facility is taken care of by the installations used - including gray water recovery systems and photovoltaic panels. The latter are located both on the roof of the main body of the station and in the canopies of the bus platforms, where they have been blended into their glass structure, providing not only energy, but also shade during hot weather.
Lublin Metropolitan Station in the finals of the World Architecture Festival competition
Photo: Rafał Chojnacki
ladle of tar
Despite numerous awards and nominations in competitions, the building is also subject to criticism, conducted primarily from the perspective of travelers. Attention is drawn to, among other things, the lack of phone charging contacts (the problem already has a solution, although its implementation leaves a bit to be desired), inoperable electric vehicle charging stations or insufficient service infrastructure. A problematic issue seems to be the lack of a direct connection to the nearby Railway Station - such a situation is mainly due to the ownership structure of the land under development. Ideas for the construction of an underpass are appearing on the Internet, although it is difficult to imagine the possibility of their implementation at this point.
The Metropolitan Railway Station in Lublin in the final of the World Architecture Festival competition.
Photo: Maciej Ruksza © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
However, there are also more serious allegations. They mainly concern the sense of building such a huge facility in Lublin, which in the context of a city with a population of less than 330,000 seems significantly oversized. As reported by people traveling through the new Lublin station, its capacity is not being fully utilized, and at times the platforms shine empty. Perhaps this will change with the extinction of the still-functioning PKS Station in Podzamcze, where long-distance bus service was previously concentrated. Lublin Metropolitan Station therefore still faces a number of problems, some of which may remain with it forever - but this does not prevent it from continuing to gain international recognition.
