Ankara High Speed Train Station, 2013

According to the city plan designed by German city planner Hermann Jansen, Ankara Train Station is located at the end of Cumhuriyet Street. The station building on the street featuring the architectural products of the Republican era’s modernization movement would be accepted as the city’s entrance and exit gate. The station has lost this characteristic of serving as a gate city with the increasing expansion of Ankara, and these days it is inadequate in terms of capacity. Thus, a new station was needed due to the development of the “high-speed train” infrastructure, and this new program was thought to be integrated with the old station.

The design proposal took into consideration the place of the station building in the Republican era architecture and urban culture as well as its place and importance in the memory of the city and its dwellers. The design’s starting point was that the New Station Building to be designed (added) should create a value that would take into account and emphasize urban and architectural merits. A design was proposed to include the historical old station building, evaluate the old station within the city scale, and make it functional as a part of the whole without harming its independent perception. The draft proposal starts from the fringe level of the old station building’s marquise, ascends towards Celal Bayar Bulvarı, reaches the maximum height permitted by the zoning rules and forms the main entrance facade to the city. One of the most pressing problems of the current situation is that Celal Bayar Bulvarı and TCDD land is a barrier that prevents the connection between houses, universities, and the old city area (Ulus). The proposed design aims to make the station a part of the city again and establish a strong relationship with the city by creating a vital connection axis that joins two sides (Ulus and Maltepe districts) thanks to a public transition that starts in Ankaray Maltepe stop exit, passes over Celal Bayar Bulvarı, gets connected to the New Station proposal and ends in the square of the Old Station building. The New Train Station proposal has been addressed as a transportation structure and functionalized as an urban center featuring functions such as business, eating and drinking, and accommodation as well as the transportation function.

The project went out to tender with the build-operate-transfer model according to the proposal commissioned by TCDD with A Tasarım having investors develop and finalize the project according to the proposed design. The relevant administration preparing the project requested A Tasarım to evaluate it for the tender scope, and a new project was developed for the implementation phase.

The concept project developed with the investors was presented to TCDD, and it was decided in mutual discussions that the building’s mass form and facade design would comply with the previously approved tender project (the project prepared by Serdar Akünal + SUDOPAK). The facade design was reanalyzed based on the main decisions about the mass and facade in the tender project. Application projects were prepared after the reevaluation of the interior design and functions.

The users join the building from the main facade designed as the city entrance on Celal Bayar Bulvarı, and they can watch all the functions and spatial arrangements on the floors from the entrance hall. If a user enters the building from the main facade, they can observe all its functions and grasp spatial organization from the entrance hall, which is considered a permeable and fluid main gathering space and the building’s heart. Also, natural light reaches the entrance hall and even the platform level in a controlled manner through the roof elements, atriums and open terraces on each floor at the end of the building. Public terraces are opening to the city view on both sides of the floor where the ticket offices are located. The goal is to ensure maximum use of natural light inside the building and obtain quality living spaces.

Twelve high-speed trains can simultaneously serve three 400-meter platforms in the building with a total construction area of 220,000 m2. The platforms have been designed to meet the TCDD services. The building’s security setup is divided into zones within pedestrian circulation areas, and these zones are connected at a single security point in the main entrance hall. Outdoor areas of different directions and sizes were designed for users and TCDD personnel to support various functions throughout the building and provide vista to Ankara’s symbolic structures.