Project

Abstract

The Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rotterdam and Utrecht form the compact „metroloop" popularly referred to as the Randstad, or „Rim City", Europe's densest conurbation. A number of government initiatives have investigated the potential for a high-speed magnetic levitation („maglev") rail system to solve the growing mobility problem in this rapidly expanding urban cluster. The Transferium is a design proposal by Falk Schneemann for an interchange in Utrecht, located at the intersection of maglev, railway, highway and local traffic networks. The Transferium is sited on the border between the historic city, with 350.000 inhabitants, and a new quarter, with 75.000 inhabitants. Although the Transferium is designed for a specific site it can also be seen as an urban prototype, configurable to other locations and transfer modes. In the Transferium, excessive consumption of valuable realty is avoided by the spatial economics of the station's vertical organisation. This results in a footprint 50% smaller than that of a traditional station with a similar number of platforms. To avoid the congestion typical around a railway station, the Transferium creates an „urban conveyor", with the four transfer - maglev train, train, bus and car- over four stacked levels.