VICTORIA CROSSINGS: CREATING A 21ST CENTURY TRANSIT + TOWN CENTER SOLUTION
VICTORIA STATION: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM Transforming neighborhood, people, and transit into an active landscape and community. The quality of the existing rail shed with it’s elegant trusses informs the transformation of Victoria by adding a new twentyfirst century canopy above the rail lines for national coaches and taxis. Clearance of clutter and ugliness: Buses, taxis, a landscape of vending kiosks, outworn and underperforming buildings and the existing coach station can all make way for attractive new opportunities. A New Station Landscape: With addition above rail lines and to the south of the station for coaches and taxis, new pedestrian and visual connections are formed. Buses are moved from the forecourt to the east side of the station. A new, liberated station and forecourt: The elegance of station and hotel are revealed and the ease and clarity of pedestrian movement establish a new city place. Lightwells become programmable spaces, as well as, identifying and wayfind elements along the often confusing and disoriented “underground.”
Renovated Forecourt at Victoria Station with New Elements Installed
2)- Light elements above the surface at ground level function assculptural urban features during nighttime hours.
3)- Light elements below the surface function as light fixtures for the Underground spaces and access platforms.
Light Elements: Wells + Fixtures Precedent Photo Credits: 1)- Potsdamer Platz Station- Berlin, Germany 4)- Olympic Handball Stadium- London, England 2)- Musée du Quai Branly, Paris- Paris, France 5)- Potsdamer Platz Station- Berlin, Germany 3)- Exhibit at Pabellon De Espana- Zaragoza, Spain 6)- Solar Light Tube- Washington DC
1)- Light elements below the surface function as light fixtures.
4)- The same light elements below the surface function as light fixtures for the Underground spaces and access platforms.
5)- Light elements above the surface at 6)- Example of tectonics of the “light tube” fixtures. ground level function as visual stimulants during daytime hours.
The Light Elements are not only decorative aesthetic elements, but also serve as light thresholds that can be programable and occupiable spaces pertinent to the various level changes associated with the underground.
Section Sketch Showing Renovated Underground and Forecourt with New Light Elements Installed
1)- Stair insertions allow circulation to take place within the wells.
2)- A more dynamic transition from the Underground to the street level can be achieved with these larger wells.
3)- The Underground access platforms and waiting areas become more appealing spaces to occupy as they transition from The Underground to the street level.
Light Thresholds: Programable + Occupiable Space Precedent Photo Credits: 1)- Sendai Mediatheque- Japan 2)- AA Hijmans van den Bergh Facility- Utrecht, Netherlands 3)- Canary Wharf Station- London, England
4)- Openings allow views into programed spaces below ground.
5)- Well tectonics and circulation example.
4)- Potsdamer Platz Station- Berlin, Germany 5)- Sendai Mediatheque- Japan 6)- AA Hijmans van den Bergh Facility- Utrecht, Netherlands 7)- Place des Arts- Montreal, Canada
6)-Programable space on the well periphery with circulation elements at core.
7)- Spatial quality and tectonics of occupiable wells .
A new pattern of links crossing the rail bed encourages a walking experience.
Cross Connections (Weft)
Links from Victoria Station to Battersea Station reinforce the network.
The Apollo Theater, rail station and sheds, The Grosvenor Hotel act as anchors.
Movement Vectors (Warp)
Buildings to Remain
Two new central places, one to the north, the other to the south, act as nodes for the sensitive infill of buildings .
A new web of pedestrian and green spaces permeate the pedestrian networks and provide a growing variety of social spaces.
A new transit link from Victoria Station connects to a New Thames Ferry Port, New Battersea Park, and undeveloped areas beyond. N
New Buildings
Open Spaces
Master Site Plan
1- Buckingham Palace
GOALS: * Legibility * Accessibility * Comfort * Functionality * Restoration and Regeneration
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STRATEGIES: * Remove barriers and obstructions * Organize remaining conditions * Provide architectural interventions * Incorporate industrial urban ecology 2- Victoria Station
Past Victoria Station:
3- Battersea
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Current Victoria Station:
Existing Site: Yellow to be Altered
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3 Site
Cross Connections
New Cross Connections
Vectors: Tram
Vectors: Path
The design approach involves creating a physical fabric of warp-and-weft through the site threading together divergent locations, groups of people, and activities. Within that fabric is created a new network of program elements combining both architecture and landscape. The developed pattern and the theory regarding placement of objects, and use in space is theoretically indicative of different culture of the city coming together; Normative and aberrant interventions are revealed within vectors that transpose a tertiary landscape; The rail bed as a landscape that informs and inspires.
Victoria Crossing Bird’s Eye The entire movement is a landscape and is much more than a horizontal experience. Building and landscape is interwoven to increase the language of landscape. Elements of language act as communication devices informing users of issues beyond the obvious transit oriented. Buildings are as deferential to landscape as the reverse. A relationship is built through the planes and is read in a form of dialog. The intersection of mobility is juxtaposed with places of refuge. The spatial quality of ‘coming together’ is embedded within the framework that allows passage and movement. Edges are important and are defined with long simple spaces. Vectors are much less than arbitrary, they are the justification for the buildings and the resultant forces at work. The weaving and connections to existing systems are intended to hold system integrity.
Vectors: Canopy
Vectors: Bike
Vectors: North
Existing Canopy
Existing Forecourt Area: * Heavy Congestion * Poor Legibility * Filled with Barriers * Uncomfortable * Unwelcoming
Distance + Time Diagram
Existing Shed Roofs
New Coach Shed
Victoria Crossings New Site Plan
New Buildings
Green + Open Spaces
Light Wells
1- New Westminster Market Area
Enlarged Plan of Improved Westminster Market + Queen’s Court (Forecourt Area) Areas
2 1 2a 2- New Westminster Market/Queen’s Court
2a- Improved Forecourt Approach
2- New Lightwells at New Queen’s Court
Water Taxi- Port
Nodes
Solar Energy
Activities
Within the newly configured forecourt, the introduction of light wells is a dominant design element that allows for visual stimulants and greater orientation possibilities. They also serve to provide light and access to the subterranean spaces of the Underground. More than tectonic devices, they allow for circulation and transitional spaces. Penetrating the surface, the tube-like shafts of light would create stalactites of light coming down into the underground chamber. Inside the station itself the primary goal is to remove clutter and extraneous elements to allow for a clean slate, void of the disparate obstructions that have accumulated over time.
Existing Victoria Station
New Victoria Station
The intentional re-alignment of train frontages creates a dominant visual edge that is clear and legible for occupants of the new ‘Great Hall’ space. Taking advantage of the multiple elevations afforded by configuration of the existing canopy structures and the newly configured coach station an elevated edge enables participants to view unencumbered the entirety of the floor with all the vitality and life of a mobile society.
Improved Victoria Station Section looking Northeast
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Clearance of ugliness: Buses, taxis, a landscape of vending kiosks, outworn and underperforming buildings and the existing coach station can all make way for attractive new opportunities. A New Station Landscape: With addition above rail lines and to the south of the station for coaches and taxis, new pedestrian and visual connections are formed. Buses are moved from the forecourt to the east side of the sta tion. A new, liberated station and forecourt: The elegance of station and hotel are revealed and the ease and clarity of pedestrian movement establish a new city place. Clean and Clear Traain Te T rminall
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a Bu usses Coaches N T Taxies
New Buildin ng Existing to remain New Path
New Victoria Station Activities Diagram Cluttered Station Concourse Crowded Forecourt
Unattractive Non-Sustainable Offices Dated Coach Station
Existing Stie Conditions - Yellow to be Removed
New Vic New Victoria ctoria SStation tation n + Coach h Stat Station tion Pla Plan Unsuitable Housing No Water Front Access
The rail station becomes a simple volume with two contrasting shed roofs.
Coach Station Interior Looking West - b
The coach station with its dramatic new roof captures the skyline to the south.
Victoria Station Interior Looking South - a
The development of Eccleston Square and Victoria Gardens was driven and motive by asking the question “what defines 21st Century Society?’ What would users of this new dynamic, dense, urban core be looking for? A mix of uses was identified as the most fruitful source of vitality for the new community. Strong opportunities for transit, entertainment, office buildings with residential above are present. The ability to live, work, and play were identified as strong needs to ensure a 24 hour hub of life. Within the context of the new framework created by for the new development is interwoven an intensive hub of adult education. A new campus for the City College of London has been established that takes advantage of multilayered cultural and civic opportunities including housing, transit, mobility, access, democratic open spaces and mixed use vitality.
New Eccleston Square Section
New Eccelston Square Activities
Protection and safety are key ingredients along with emotional security and the ability to appeal to a wide range of citizens from the very old to the very young. The ability to play, to sit, to be quiet, to gather, are all fundamental aspects of life that need a stage on which to play out. Public amenity and resource is provided that satisfies the needs of a wide range of constituents where people can live and be happy. The presence of ‘City information’ brings world tolerance. A cultural icon of large scale video imagery tells a constantly changing story of the local community and its place within the greater world society and economy. Envisioned for Victoria Gardens is a new London park with wide expanses of dynamic, programmable spaces that at times could be very quiet green space; at other times, very active and participatory.
New Eccleston Square
Port Victoria: A New Thames Ferry Terminal River Thames offers a more ecologically friendly means to access Hammersmith, the West End, Bankside, City of London, and Canary Wharf. The park as a destination point with roof top terrace and dramatic views of the Thames and Battersea Station. A Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) links Victoria to Battersea with a station link from the Ferry. -
Port Victoria Birds Eye - a
New Port Victoria (Water Taxi) Distance and Travel Times:
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New Port Victoria South Elevation
Port Victoria South Elevation + Section a-a
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New Port Victoria Activities