Urban Railway Station "Am Stadtgarten", Dortmund

Competition: 1979 – 1st Prize
Construction period: 1980 - 1982
Design: Eckhard Gerber
Project team: Georg Kolendowicz et al.
Client: Stadt Dortmund

The Urban Railway Station "Am Stadtgarten“ is one of the three main stations situated inside the Dortmund city ring. Its close proximity to the town hall, theatre and city park lends it particular importance in the urban context.
Located in the middle of the newly designed city park, it resembles a transparent octagonal garden pavilion of steel and glass and unifies the two existing staircases that lead up from the underground tunnel and train platforms, creating a kind of train station concourse. (The staircases already existed when the competition was announced.) The fact that the octagonal hall lacks any specific orientation allows for it to function as a point of central distribution, opened on all sides, as well as emphasizing the character of a transparent pavilion situated within a green space. Steel I-beams located in the corners of the octagon support the subtended roof construction. The overhead lighting, located above the concentric thrust ring and main structural beams, emphasizes the course of the structural forces.
In response to the downward slope of the site to the south, secondary rooms, such as those accommodating toilets, staff room and ticket sales, are located underground behind two lateral wall segments, whereby the visible volumes are diminished when employed as a kind of expansive, intriguing element in the city park. The two walls mediate, on the one hand, between the different levels and, on the other hand, serve to embed the glass pavilion into the urban landscape on both sides.
Responding to the idea of lateral guiding walls that help define a landscaped space, the artist Eberhard Linke created a fountain that also takes advantage of the site’s different levels.

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