From isolated to integrated

Abstract

The relationship between the city and railway development is fascinating. In Europe, railway stations were originally placed at urban periphery. Step by step, as the urban dense core area expands outwards, the railway station areas were pulled in and now absorbed by the urban fabric. Because of large-scale and special facility form, Railway surrounding Area (RSA) always acts as a boundary breaking urban in pieces. The physical fragment and even social segregation lead to compromises in both urban operations and quality of urban environment. At the same time, ongoing trends of train station area redevelopment and ambition of tripling the current network (White Paper of Transport, EU) further exacerbate the seriousness of this problem. It is time to rethink our city's relationship with the Railway Surrounding Area (RSA). Can we solve those existing problems? Can we attach new meanings to a station and its facilities? Can we improve the pedestrian-friendly and livability around RSA for meeting the request for redevelopment? The Netherlands offers a valuable model- Since 1998, 6 major railway stations have started to be redeveloped. These projects which not only the stations are transformed, but also their connecting surroundings. A railway station and its surrounding were seen as one entirety to be designed. Whereas in China, The rapid development of high-speed railway is not only facing the request of technological updates and urban development in the city center, also are acting as a driving force to promote the new town growth in the rural area. In last 30 years, more than 800 stations were built up, new or upgraded. Even though China is the biggest railway construction site right now. But due to this very early stage of HSR and urban development in China, the impact is still blurred. The methods I adopted in this research is that by clarifying the multiple barrier elements and collecting the current design patterns, I can build up an interpret that how Dutch projects perceive and design connectivity issue in RSA. Then, based on the different context, the application of Dutch experience to China could be explored. The results obtained in this research include Barrier Elements Clarifying, Dutch experience summary and Application Design in Shanghai Station area. Hopefully, this research could contribute to solving the current physical fragment and social segregation problems around railway surrounding area, and also offer new thinking for railway area redevelopment, both theoretically and practically.