The future of train travel is revealed as Arnhem Central Station opens after 20-years of development. The Transfer Terminal is the central piece of the Masterplan linking different programs and levels within the station area.
The station will become the new "front door" of the city, embracing the spirit of travel, and is expected to establish Arnhem as an important node between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
UNStudio began the Masterplan in 1996 and completed its first sketch design for the Transfer Terminal in 2000. After intensively researching passenger flows and transportation modes, UNStudio proposed that the new terminal should expand to become a "transfer machine" that incorporates the whole spectrum of public transport, meeting the travel demands of the 21st century.
The Transfer Terminal features a dramatic twisting structural roof geometry, which enables column-free spans of up to 60 meters. Taking references from the continuous inside/outside surface of a Klein Bottle, UNStudio aimed to blur the distinction between the inside and outside of the terminal by continuing the urban landscape into the interior of the transfer hall, where ceilings, walls and floors all seamlessly transition into one another.
通过摒弃传统的建筑方法和材料，使屋顶和扭曲的柱结构成为了可能，更轻的钢取代了混凝土。最初的目的是为车站建造时使用以前从未尝试过的船模建造技术。
The structure of the roof and twisting column was only made possible by abandoning traditional construction methods and materials; much lighter steel replaced concrete - originally intended for the station - and was constructed using boat building techniques on a scale never before attempted.
The new terminal houses commercial areas, and a conference centre, and provides links to the nearby office plaza, city centre, underground parking garage and the Park Sonsbeek.
Integrating the naturally sloping landscape distinctive to Arnhem, UNStudio conceived the Transfer Terminal as a flowing, utilitarian landscape of different functions stacked up to four stories above ground and two below.
