Station Centraal / Merkez Istasyonu - Ankara

After the successful 2011 ‘Station Centraal’ exhibition and symposium a Dutch-Turkish event will take place
in Istanbul and Ankara in May 2013: ‘Station Centraal / Merkez Istasyonu’. The eight Dutch station projects featured in the 2011 exhibition will be complemented by Turkish projects, including models, drawings and visualisations. A symposium will be organised on the first two days of the exhibition with speakers from various disciplines related to the station and railway developments in both countries.

Programme

The exhibition is open to public from May 4-18 in Istanbul and from May 20-31 in Ankara. On May 4th and 5th a symposium will take place, where station developments at different scales will be discussed. Topics include the importance of high speed rail for the future of the EU and Turkey, the integration of rail and station in the urban fabric and the railway station building as part of the city. Entrance to the exhibitions and symposium is free.

After the symposium a three-day workshop will be held with students from Delft University of Technology and the Istanbul Technical University. Twenty students from different disciplines (architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering) will work on an assignment that is related to the topics of Station Centraal.

Background

The Netherlands has made substantial investments in recent years to prepare its infrastructure for the European high-speed rail network. Many stations are being transformed to multimodal transportation hubs as part of this endeavour and they are quickly becoming new showcases of Dutch architecture. With the Dutch railway network being one of the most dense in the world, it also has a lot of expertise to offer in the field of rail network construction and logistics.

Turkey is currently reinventing its rail network. By 2023 the country wants to build 7000 km of high-speed rail and add 4000 km to its conventional rail network. The importance of a well functioning is increasing, not only for Turkey’s infrastructure: but it can also be a solution to energy issues in the future. In relation to the energy issues this future network will solve many problems. However, Turkey has little experience with building large inter modal stations and an exchange of knowledge between the two countries could make an important contribution to the current developments in Turkey.

Station Centraal will provide insight into the major station projects in both countries and hopes to inspire discussion on differences and similarities in approach of both countries on these major endeavours. Knowledge can be exchanged and together we hope to gain new insights.

Organization

Station Centraal / Merkez Istasyonu is initiated by Frans Bochanen, Sine Celik and Roderick Trompert, who all graduated in 2012 as architect at the TU Delft. The panel discussions will be moderated by Rob van der Bijl, Akın Atauz and Alper Ünlü.

Station Centraal / Merkez Istasyonu is organised in collaboration with:

Creative industries fund nl, Delft Infrastructures & Mobility Initiative (TU Delft), Benthem Crouwel Architekten, Mecanoo Architecten, Architectenbureau Koen van Velsen, UNStudio, ProRail, Dutch Embassy in Turkey, Istanbul Technical University, Türk Serbest Mimarlar Derneği (TSMD), Architects Association 1927, TCDD (Turkish State Railways), Sudopak International, Cafer Bozkurt Architecture, TH Idil Architecture, Altinok Engineering and AU Architecture.