Intermodal station and Parque Felipe VI in Logroño
Architect: Ábalos + Sentkiewicz
Year: 2020
Location: Logroño, Spain
Category: Infraestructure / Station
Status: Unbuilt
About
The result of a competition won in 2006, the intermodal station of Logroño was part of a much larger urban plan to bury the railway line as it traversed the capital of La Rioja region, and which also involved creating a large linear park and five residential towers. The train station with underground platforms, built between 2010 and 2013, and the bus station, between 2017 and 2020, connect under a large, 60-meter-span dome completed in 2020. Whereas the design of the train station focused on the transition from entrance to platforms, the bus station with its horseshoe shape emphasizes the waiting area’s contact with the park by means of stairs. The building arose from the initial idea of tackling the new high-speed railway station and the bus station in a single formal gesture. The faceted imprint of the interior goes with that of the landscaped rooftop park, so they are two sides of a folded surface that on the outside gives rise to a small hill-lookout over the city, and inside is configured like a cave or grotto.