Fixing the Link - Creating a strong, vital and attractive link between the Dutch central railway station and city centre

Fixing the Link - Creating a strong, vital and attractive link between the Dutch central railway station and city centre

Brouwer, I.

Van der Spek, S.C. (mentor)
Meijers, W.L.E.C. (mentor)
De Wilde, T.S. (mentor)
Rooij, R.M. (mentor)

Architecture

Urbanism

2010-01-22

The link between railway station and city centre in the Netherlands is becoming increasingly important in our cities; On the one hand the railway station is gaining importance as entrance to the city (Rooij, 2005; Bertolini & Dijst, 2003; NS, 2006; NS Poort, 2009) and on the other hand cities are promoting their city centres to attract visitors and stimulate the local economy (Van der Hoeven et al., 2008). The link between station and centre therefore has to serve more and more people per day. This link is responsible for the arrival experience of visitors traveling by train to the city and therefore the place to make a good first impression (Van der Spek, 2006). However, the link between railway station and city centre is often unattractive and lacks vitality (Kusumo, 2007; Rooij & Read, 2008). Visitors of the city have to cross several barriers while walking to the city centre. Furthermore the route is often disorienting and the public space has a low quality. In other words, it is not an inviting entrance to the city: The link between railway station and city centre in the Netherlands is broken and needs to be fixed. This thesis aims at developing spatial design interventions to fix the link. The focus is on the unfamiliair visitor of a Dutch middle sized city traveling on foot from the central railway station to the city centre. The station is positioned outside of the historic city centre. The objective is to fix the link. The main research question of the thesis is: What spatial design interventions can create a strong, vital and attractive link between the Dutch central railway station and city centre? The spatial design interventions that can fix the link are found by: 1. A literature study on the work of leading authors in the field of (design of) successful public space in the 20th en 21st century. The study results in a list of criteria to fix the link; 2. A case study research on 16 comparable Dutch cases. For this research a validation tool is developed (based on the literature study) to objectively measure the quality of the links. 3. A design to fix the link in Haarlem. Haarlem is one of the 16 cases that has both a low score and a high potential. The main research question of the graduation project can be answered in four steps: 1. When dealing with a certain broken link between central railway station and city centre in the Netherlands, first of all the quality of this link should be validated with the help of the validation tool. In this way its strong and weak spots can be found. Furthermore the first recommendations for fixing the link can be made; 2. Then the railway station environment and link should be analysed on the scale of the city centre as a part of a network of activity nodes; 3. To fix the link both the railway station and link need to be integrated into the system of activity nodes of the city centre by adding nodes in the form of attractors and by changing the railway station environment itself into a place of stay and therefore an attractor as well. 4. Then the links themselves should be designed with the help of the criteria from the literature study. In other words, all links should be lively, have human scale, be legible and be safe & comfortable.

railway station environment
city centre
public space quality
pedestrian
spatial design intervention
the Netherlands
Haarlem

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6bbfcc6f-9908-421b-b665-89df1dba9efc

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Brouwer, I.