A Gateway to the City

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Date
2015-09-09
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Publisher
Virginia Tech
Abstract

Through this thesis I explore how a train station can serve as the platform for an experience that is more profound than simply coming and going, and instead can provide a moment that allows travelers to appreciate the location that they are traveling to or from.

A train station is almost uniquely positioned to serve as the first or last building any train traveler encounters in a city, serving as the gateway to the modern city. This presents an opportunity where the station itself will have a direct influence on a traveler's initial or final experience of the city.

And so, I propose a station that, through its architecture and relationship to the site, provides the traveler a space where they can stop, look, and take in the view of the city from which they are about to depart or at which they are just now arriving. It allows those new to the city to get an understanding of the basic urban layout and its relationship to its surroundings. It becomes a destination in itself, that allows the local population to regain knowledge of their city and to reinterpret what they already know about their home.

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Keywords
Lugano, train station, monumental, lookout, tower, canopy
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