Top 10 Best-Designed Bus Stations in the World
Bus stations are hardly synonymous in most people’s minds with glamour and great design; indeed we’re far more likely to think of airports and even train stations as examples of innovative and stylish architecture.
Here’s our pick of 10 of the world’s best-designed bus stations.
1. Bus Station at Spaarne Hospital (Sesign aarne Ziekenhuis)
Design: NIO architecten
Location: Holland
Photo: Radek Brunecky
This mammoth creation of architects NIO of Holland, located as a roundabout in front of Hoofddorp’s Spaarne Hospital, resembles a whale’s jaw. Built in 2003, it emerges as a cross between black Baroque and white modernism, à la Oscar Niemeyer.
Photo: Radek Brunecky
One of the largest structures built entirely of synthetic materials, this bus station is made of enormous pieces of polystyrene foam clad in polyester skin.
Photo: Radek Brunecky
Ingenious use of length as well as the ceilings moulded contours gives the station an unforgettable form and the materials used in construction were tested to be resistant to knives, graffiti, and cigarettes.
2. Arriva Headquarters Guimarães
Design: RVDM Arquitectos
Location: Portugal
Photo: © FG+SG
Ricardo Vieira de Melo of RVDM Arquitectos conceived the Edifícios Portugueses bus facility to solve certain logistical issues for public transport company Arriva.
Photo: © FG+SG
A parking capacity for 96 buses and ample maneuverability presented by the two strategically located buildings gives this bus station a compact yet spacious look.
Photo: © FG+SG
Glass-coated lacquer festoons the office building enhancing the view of the landscape while ushering in more sunlight. The maintenance shop faces away from its neighboring buildings to minimise sound pollution.
Photo: © FG+SG
3. Slough Bus Station
Design: Bblur Architecture
Location UK
Photo: Hufton + Crow
You’ve got to feel a bit sorry for Slough: the Berkshire town was the eponymous subject of derision in a famous poem by John Betjeman and, more recently, was chosen as the location of the fictional paper company in the original version of TV sitcom The Office; but to all its detractors, Slough can at least boast of having one of the world’s best-designed bus stations.
Photo: Matt Clayton
As a tribute to local astronomer William Herschel, who discovered infrared waves in 1800, London architects Bblur created an undulating building to represent light’s different wavelengths.
Photo: Matt Clayton
A 130 metre glistening aluminium canopy flows down at one end to enfold a shimmering two-storey structure that envelops a ticket office, driver facilities, newsagent, cafe, waiting room and toilets.
Photo: Hufton + Crow
The curved construction also offers sanctuary to pedestrians walking between the town centre and railway station. The aluminium-shingled building’s smooth metallic look changes continuously in accordance to the varying light conditions.
4. Cloud-Like Canopy for Bus Station in Aarau
Design: Vehovar & Jauslin Architektur
Location: Switzerland
Photo: Vehovar & Jauslin
Zurich architects Mateja Vehovar and Stefan Jauslin designed this reflective and semi-translucent, bluish ETFE canopy that reminds us of an air cushion. Hovering over the bus station, this bubble canopy features a fine print courtesy Jauslin and Paolo Monaco.
Photo: Vehovar & Jauslin
Boasting a volume of 1810 cu m, the cloud roof is one of the world’s largest single-chamber membrane air cushions.
Photo: Vehovar & Jauslin
This pneumatic wonder gets recirculated air with the help of four underground 120-metre polyethylene tubes while four others carry the air back to the control unit. Quietly inclined pillars brace the canopy making it appear as light as a cloud.
5. Preston Bus Station
Design: BDP
Location: UK
Photo: Roger Park
One of the largest bus stations in Western Europe, Preston Station has the capacity to hold 1,100 cars and 80 double decker buses. Threatened with demolition 10 years ago, but later listed as a Grade II building, this iconic modernist building, a 1969 creation of Arup, was rightly acclaimed as an architectural triumph.
Photo: Roger Park
The station exudes elegance in every detail, right down to its airport-like signage. Its sculptured edges make up the four and five levels of car parking, below which are harboured the bus passengers.
6. Bus Station in Osijek
Design: Rechner Architects
Location: Croatia
Photo: © Mario Romulic & Drazen Stojcic
Architects Predrag and Bruno Rechner of Rechner, Osijek, Croatia shaped this lengthy bus station in accordance with the city’s outline along the river Drava.
Photo: © Mario Romulic & Drazen Stojcic
The glass-wrapped two-storey building houses an underground public garage and 16 bus platforms. Buses arrive via checkpoints, while passengers come through the station building.
Photo: © Mario Romulic & Drazen Stojcic
The wavy roof affords cover throughout the terminal, which gives users a feeling of sailing on long, low waves. The underground garage, ground floor, the staircase core, and even the beams are fortified with reinforced concrete. Steel trusses running both ways prop up the huge block of roof.
7. Vauxhall Bus Station
Design: Arup Associates
Location: London
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Photo: Christian Richters
Completed in 2005 as part of the regeneration of this previously rundown area of south London, Vauxhall bus station still looks bold and ultra modern with its ski-slope curves rendered in stainless steel.
Christian%20Richters.jpg "Vauxhall bus station, London")
Photo: Christian Richters
But this bold, modernist form also has function: the roof is studded with photovoltaic cells, which help power the lights in the bus station. The streamlined structure, whose shape was inspired by the lines on London Tube and bus maps, is also designed to be easy to keep clean.
Christian%20Richters.jpg "Vauxhall bus station, London")
Photo: Christian Richters
8. Bus station, Thiais
Design: ECDM
Location: France
Photo: Benoit Fougeirol
Designed by Emmanuel Combarel and Dominique Marrec, founders of ECDM, this bus station in the Paris suburb of Thiais is covered with Ductal, a high performance concrete with a raised texture that resembles the surface of Lego bricks. Bold cut-out sections in the building’s otherwise monolithic facade are glazed, and these are lit up in different primary colours.
Photo: Benoit Fougeirol
‘Our aim was to focus on the site’s mineral nature and design a building that merged with and grew out of the road,’ says Dominique Marrec.
Photo: Philippe Ruault
9. Busbahnhof Poppenbüttel
Design: Blunck + Morgen Architekten
Location: Germany
Picture: Blunck + Morgen Architekten
This bus station, awarded Building of the Year 2009 by the Hamburg Architecture and Engineering Association (AIV e.v Hamburg), was designed by architects Blunck-Morgen, with the intention of sculpting an airborne edifice. The 1800 m² wingshaped roof seems to be floating lightly above, which is the striking design element in the modernised bus station that is built like an island and has eight bus bays around it.
Picture: Blunck + Morgen Architekten
Steel supports help it stay afloat, with only a small amount of equipment making up the flooring, emphasising the hovering nature of the wing roof. Bent along two axes, the armour of ALUCOBOND fuses flawlessly with the membranous surface with steel supports buttressing the sail.
Picture: Blunck + Morgen Architekten
Picture: Maike Hansen
10. Poole Bus Station
Design: Penson Architects
Location: UK
Photo: Penson
The 40-year-old Wilts & Dorset Poole Bus Station, renovated by Penson Architects, resembles a living dream. It a giant mural, based on views of various local activities, such as wind-surfing which gives the appearance of a huge piece of glass reflecting the station activities below.
Photo: Penson
With exquisite lighting, the building includes an outdoor corridor leading to bus departure points as well as the shopping centre.
Photo: Penson
Moving beneath the mural, different textures, shapes and patterns materialise to form larger diverse elements that takes visitors by surprise.
Source – designcurial.
