Long Distance Train Station Airport

Mobility
»With the train’s arrival the traveller should have the feeling of being located beneath a large flying object. Telescopic-like supports convey the impression that the structural shell actually could take off.«Hadi Teherani

Transparency, comfort and modernness characterise the long-distance railway station at Frankfurt Airport served by Intercity- Express (ICE) trains. The interior eye-catcher is the glass vault that arches above the station concourse suffused with light, including the connecting passage to Terminal 1 at the airport. Broad glass frontages generously allow incoming daylight to even reach the platform level below, creating a friendly, spacious feel. The waiting rooms for passengers lie in the interior of the girder ‘belly’ within sight of both train platforms. The railway station’s slender, rounded-off superstructure extends above the track area across a length of 700 metres. The distinctively shaped outer deck with an area of roughly 34 000 square metres formed the site for the largest office building in Germany, which even has its own postcode. Years later, the station roof along with the glass-vaulted dome became the base for a total of 140 000 square metres of rental space; all weightloads resulting from development atop the station are carried by the deck. And because the deck shielded the tracks like a horizontally laid construction-site fence during vertical expansion, the work didn’t interfere with rail traffic.

Project Factsheet

Competition1995
Ranking2.Platz
Planning1996 - 1996
Start of Construction1996
Completion1999
BuilderDeutsche Bahn AG Geschäftsbereich Personenbahnhöfe PGV 1 Frankfurt/M.
Gross Floor Area38,155 sqm
Awards

RENAULT traffic design award 2003, special cetegory train stations

Project ManagementChristian Feck, Berthold Staber
Project Team

Lutz Gnosa, Frank Gorge, Michael Horn, Wolfgang Labsch, Katja Pahl, Ali Pakrooh, Monika Pfretzschner, Claudia Springmeier, Peer Weiß, Christopher Wilford, Arndt Woelke, Katrin Koulouri, Irene Manhardt, Jurgen Wilhelm

Image CopyrightJörg Hempel, Aachen