Railway Station Complex in St. Denis district in Patras, Greece

Student: Papatheodorou Anastasia
Supervisor: Aesopos Yannis
Faculty: Architecture Department, University of Patras
Date of Presentation: 26th June 2012

The subject of the study is the new railway station of St. Denis district in Patras, Greece, and its surrounding space. The new train lines are going to be underground in order to facilitate the circulation of the cars and for safety reasons as well, since the trains will be moving in high speed. The  building will include, apart from the services of the station, shops, cinemas and congress halls. The surrounding space will consist of squares, an open - space theatre and café.

The plot is situated in the centre of the city of Patras. However, the region is rather not commercially developed. Its surface is 35.000 sq.m. Its length is 500 m. and its width varies between 55 and 90 m. In the plot exist a preservable building, which will be maintained as a railway museum, and some old  train  wagons that will be used as part of an outdoor exhibition around the new museum.

Fundamental aspects of the composition constitute the axes that result from the grid of the region but also from the line of the train itself, that is expressed on the surface and crosses almost at length the entire plot. These axes separate the plot into surfaces, that 'rive' from the ground and become three - dimensional. The surfaces bent and create a relief level, that is transformed into volumes with walkable lofts. Thus the ground 'emerges' and becomes the building and then turns again into ground, without leaving any part of the plot inaccessible. Ιn that way a park is created, a big walk, not only for the visitors of the station but also for the residents of the region with numerous paths that could take, whether they are going to travel, or not.