New Delhi Railway Station, India

The New Delhi railway station is getting a sleek new look. From new infrastructure to technological enhancements, the station is on track to reach world-class status by 2010.Other than completion of the mammoth Route Relay Interlocking System (RRI), that came after circuiting an area of about 3.5km using 700km of cables, the station plans to offer a lot more to its passengers by the year-end. A sprawling new building with enhanced passenger amenities, international graphic signs, disabled-friendly platforms, shopping arcade, food court and the list goes on.The completion of the first part of the renovation came at a cost of Rs 71 crore. Apart from the route relay interlocking system that costed Indian Railways Rs 27 crore, the maintenance facility of the station has also been upgraded by the addition of a track. A new track has also been added to remove the bottleneck from the Sadar Bazaar side.‘‘The completion of RRI has made sure that there was no conflicting movement on the tracks. Not just that, the RRI will also drastically reduce the chances of rail traffic congestion,’’ said a Northern railway spokesperson.The entire RRI system is controlled from power cabin where the operators have a layout in front of them indicating the occupied and unoccupied tracks. With RRI capable of handling 1,278 routes, the station has also entered the Guiness Book of World Records. According to a railway official, the transformation of New Delhi Railway Station is not just because of the Commonwealth Games but also to handle 8-12% growth in passenger traffic in last 2-3 years. Northern Railways chief spokesperson, Rajiv Saxena said, “With the increase in passenger rush, its not just the rail traffic that has to be smoothened but facilities for passengers comfort are also to be added. To meet this demand, railways is carrying out the required changes.’’ The station has also added four platforms (two of which are to be completed shortly), which will ease out the problem of trains getting held up because of the unavailability of platforms. Saxena added, ‘‘Going by the fact that the during the peak seasons the station handles more than 4 lakh passengers, the additional platforms will also offer greater passenger space.” The new 80,000-square foot station building at the Ajmeri gate entrance will only make things better. According to a railway official, it will be a state-of-the-art building. Expected to be ready by December-end, it will have a touch-screen enquiry system, plasma TV but also an AC ticketing area. The building will also house both AC and non-AC waiting rooms and dormitories.

Dubai's Metro Station

Teesside Power Station, Stockton-On-Tees, Teesside

With a rising global population and increasing political focus on the future of power generation, the task of designing a 49 mega-watt, bio-mass fuelled power station in Stockton-On-Tees is an interesting design challenge.

The site at Clarence Works is on the banks of the river Tees and is classified as brownfield, being both post-industrial and ecologically sparse. On the opposite bank is Middlehaven, a major new development of 3000 new homes.

The studio’s approach has been to treat the power station as an opportunity to make a positive architectural and cultural contribution to the area. Rather than placing yet another large industrial building onto this flat landscape, the studio’s proposal is integrated into it. By reconfiguring the arrangement of the energy generation equipment permitting it to be housed within an efficient single volume, the scheme occupies only a third of the site and provides four hectares of indigenous grasslands, which are literally pulled up the façade.

The scheme includes the creation of a publicly accessible park, education facility and events venue. The riverside site enables the fuel to be delivered by ship, achieving a further reduction in carbon emissions compared to road transport. The parabolic hyperboloid form is clad with a proprietary panelised façade system supported on a steel frame, which is structurally very efficient as it also carries the load of the internal equipment, effectively making it a lean-to.

Following extensive local consultation, planning consent was granted in March 2010.