The metro is one of those key inventions whose hypothetical non-existence would make urban life unbearable. Metro stations, emerging alongside the development of important transport infrastructure, have a significance for urban life that goes far beyond their functional importance. From a social point of view, these architectural spaces are marked by a polar ambiguity: they are negative spaces (or non-places) of transit, but with all the social characteristics of positive spaces (spiritualized places) for people to gather; they are a legal underground whose manifestations, both underground and on the surface, will always be a challenge for urban administration and planners alike.
Aesthetics - can design turn non-place into place?
Redesigning Munich's underground stations - by Arch. Alexander von Branca, Barcelona - by ON-Aarchitecture studio , and Stockholm - by various designers and artists in the Art in the Metro project.
In the previous themes, we talked about placemaking and "place" as a positive term for inhabited and animated space. "Non-place" is its opposite, introduced by the French anthropologist Marc Auger. He defines "non-places" as anthropological spaces of rapid movement, circulation, consumption or communication, where modern man resides more frequently, but does not linger long and remains anonymous, and where social and cultural experience is not possible. Examples of non-places according to Auger are train stations, highways, hotel rooms, airports, shopping malls.
Subway stations presumably bear all the characteristics of non-places, marked by a contradictory and distinctly contemporary sense of loneliness in a sea of people. The unspoken consensus in many cities around the world is that this is the acceptable price we accept to pay for the undeniable functionality of the metro. In many older metro systems, however, this problem has been the subject of reflection and attempts to overcome through good design - of metro station spaces and train spaces - for some time, as the above examples show. Among these, the metro system in Stockholm, Sweden, is interesting for its ubiquitous application of a unified approach across an entire city. Almost every one of its metro stations is the subject of a distinctive artistic or architectural intervention. the 100 stations showcase art by nearly 140 artists, which is why the city government, and residents and visitors alike, often refer to the Stockholm Metro as "the world's longest art gallery." Galleries, in turn, are one of the most easily recognizable examples of "place" - culturally, historically and socially.
Functionality and added value
the Baixa Chiado metro station in Lisbon, designed by the legendary Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza
Of course, the main function of the metro is to carry passengers in the least polluting yet most people-efficient way. This functionality alone makes it a sensible investment of money and time for any urban area. Urban areas, however, are characterised by their rapid growth and the many complex problems that arise from the pace of development. It is therefore always beneficial when the construction of such complex infrastructure brings added value in the form of a solution to another urban problem besides transport. A favourite example of such a project is the Baixa Chiado metro station in the heart of Lisbon, designed by Arch. Alvaro Siza. The metro station not only serves as a transfer point between the green and blue lines of the city's system, but also offers a practical solution to one of the unique and often intractable pedestrian problems of the city, known for its complex topography and the huge elevations in some parts of its street system. The pragmatic solution, whose added value of further intervention in the areas adjacent to the metro station was initiated by the legendary Portuguese architect, has subsequently been embraced by the city government and the community.
As one of the youngest urban underground railways in Europe, the Sofia Metro still has a long way to go before it evolves to seek deeper answers to the questions raised above. At the moment, its development is based on solving practical problems related to logistics, construction, safety. Concrete metro stations already offer solutions to some urban problems - for example, the provision of underground parking at the Inter Expo Centre metro station is a request for this type of planning, which brings added value in the form of potential for future car-freeing of the city. It is important to look for an answer to the question of what are actually the important features of the metro infrastructure and its characteristic spaces, and is it sufficient for it to be effective only in terms of its immediate transport function, or is it important that it also functions at a social level.
Antonina Ilieva, architect
Antonina Ilieva is an architect with an interest in the lively exchange between architectural theory and practice. Currently one quarter of studio dontDIY, Antonina Ilieva has been working on her research on contemporary Japanese architecture in parallel since 2012.