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MAD Architects has completed the transformation of a railway station in Jiaxing, China, which the firm describes as a “train station in the forest”. The project, located in the city of Jiaxing, 60 miles southwest of Shanghai, involves replacing an outdated train station that occupied the site from 1995 to 2019.
MAD’s approach resulted in a complete reconstruction of the original 1907 station, which sits alongside a “floating” metal roof above the expanded site. In order to rebuild the old station, the company worked with architectural experts and scholars to analyze a large amount of historical data. The 210,000 red and green bricks used to build the station were all taken from the soil of nearby Nanhu.
Around the rebuilt station, MAD sought to create a complex “more user-friendly and efficient than its predecessor”. The interior of the new hub maintains a dialogue with the redeveloped station through glass facades, while the minimalist interior is clad in anodized aluminum honeycomb panels in the waiting rooms to absorb excess noise.
The new entrance and exit platforms, waiting halls, and main transportation and commercial functions are almost entirely located underground, with the landscape above the ground, in line with the team’s concept of a “train station in the forest.” The reconstructed railway station has been expanded from March Platform 5 to March Platform 6, with two arrival and departure lines for the upstream and downstream trunk lines. It is expected that in 2025, the full passenger capacity will reach 5.28 million passengers per year, with a peak passenger capacity of approximately 2,500 passengers per hour.
The project expands an existing park on top of the metro station with 1,500 trees including beech, camphor, osmanthus, maple, sebifera, sequoia and cherry. The trees are arranged in an axis that incorporates the reconstructed 1907 building, which will grow over time to form a canopy covering the entire north plaza in front of the station.
To the south, seven buildings are scattered across the landscape, serving cultural and commercial functions on a central lawn “shaped like rolling green hills.” The buildings are scattered above and below the hills, “looking like floating rings above the earth,” while the central lawn will be a venue for outdoor events, including concerts and arts festivals.
“We should rethink and define the spatial pattern of this type of transportation infrastructure buildings in China,” MAD founder Ma Yansong said of the idea behind the project. “We can get rid of people’s common pursuit of magnificent monumental buildings and turn them into urban public spaces with transportation functions, natural ecology, and cultural life, so that citizens can enjoy going, living, meeting, and having fun.”
News of the plans broke a month after MAD designed the China Waterfront Art Center as “gentle ripples on the edge of a lake.”Latest updates from the company include Ma Yansong unveiling his Dynamic landscape exhibition, a 20-year reflection on the future of the city, and in October, MAD unveiled plans to transform Shanghai’s cement warehouses with floating metal “arks”.
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