Public Square in China

Guangzhou East Railway Station is one of the biggest railway terminals in China. The old station building, constructed in the mid 90’s, was suffered from poor organizations of circulations, light and ventilation. Before renovation, numerous people and vehicles flows had to squeeze under a dark concrete panel to enter the station. Winning the bid for Asia Game 2010 offered Guangzhou an opportunity to “upgrade the landmark”. What the Architectural design and Research Institute of SCUT decided to do was to optimize the environment with elements of artificial landscape, in order to gradually repair the public spaces.

  Several openings are cut on the floor to allow natural lights to enter to the ground. The main entrance is then shifted from ground floor to the upper level. Then, a “canopy of light” is intervened to cover the space. It’s a curved glass roof erected from the existing structural grid. The shelter protects pedestrians from suns and rains. Its irregular form is generated through computational analyses. All metal elements are modular, prefabricated in local factories and composed on site. The approximately 8,000 sqm areas satisfying relatively high level of precision were finished in only 6 months.

This wasn’t the end of the story. Six years after the Asian Games a new round of renovation restarted. This time smaller elements were put on to shrink down the scale: a loop-shape kiosk accommodated informal commercial activities. Beneath the roof, translucent curtains guaranteed safety and improve efficiency of the sunshades. With public activities coming back, the public spaces are now in its recovery.

Public Square and Passenger Facilities Renovation of Guangzhou East Railway Station
Architect: Architectural design and Research Institute of SCUT – Fang Deng, Sheng Xia, Yimin Sun
Structural engineer: Xiaodan Fang, Wenjun Lei
Installations consultant: Fei Gao, Cailing Guan, Shuangqun Ma
Lighting consultant: Shenzhen NVC Co. Ltd.
Quantity surveyor: Huazhong Zhou
Contractor: China Railway Construction Group
Area: 8,500 sqm
Completion: 2016