Aims
Railway station areas can play a crucial role in promoting sustainable development if integrated with cities and be fluctuation-responsive through effective urban design. However, during the design stage, assessing the station areas' performance, of which user satisfaction is indicative, is challenging due to methodological limitations. Agent-based simulation (ABS) is promising as it can link spatial features with agents' behavior features. This research questions to what extent ABS can help assess the urban design of station areas.

Methods
This paper adopts the user pyramid as the theoretical framework, which outlines five types of user needs: safety, speed, ease, comfort, and experience. The paper selects indicators linking satisfaction and spatial features at the district and building levels. These indicators are measured in the simulation of the station system using digital tools, including MassMotion and Python scripts. The theory, indicators, and tools, in combination, serve as an assessment framework. Rotterdam Central Station is used as a case to demonstrate how the framework works.

Results
The framework is capable of assessing design alternatives by identifying changes in user satisfaction. It can be applied on the district level (at a scale of 250 m) with substantial details to inform design decision-making, and it is useful during the design stage when only limited data is available. This paper strengthens the scientific knowledge of railway station areas through the multidisciplinary literature review that translates user needs for urban design use, and it advances the digital means to visualize user satisfaction affected by design.@en

With the growing demand for sustainable accountability, the European Directive 2014/24/EU (EU 2014) pushes architects to deliver Building Information Models (BIM) as a part of procurement processes for public buildings. In the Netherlands, BIM model data is relevant to the building permitting process, which involves an environmental performance calculation (MPG). This assessment takes into consideration the embodied carbon of materials in a building. Although this analysis is performed by a qualified expert in late design phases, architects benefit from integrating carbon data in early design decision-making. Design methods supported by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) values are needed before involving expert collaborators, and not only when applying for a building permit. The existing carbon assessment tools require detailed data from BIM models, which are often not available at early design phases. Simplified tools have been discussed in theory, and explored in their potential applications, however, there lacks scientific literature discussing the hurdles designers face in their attempt to create such tools in practice, for their internal use throughout early design phases. This paper focuses on the architecture professional practice and design methods supported by digital and computational technologies, regarding embodied carbon data. It investigates the challenges in integrating embodied carbon data in the design workflow, through the development of a digital tool made by designers, for designers. This paper conducts an empirical investigation within a Rotterdam-based architecture office, with a broad portfolio in BIM usage and public building projects, to identify and categorize the factors affecting carbon data integration into the design workflow. It proposes a taxonomy of challenges within the architecture office, to better communicate the designer’s needs to the data providers and software developers with architects as a target user. Amongst the bottlenecks encountered are: access to data inclusiveness), data literacy and connecting data usage with design decision-making.@en

What does your local station mean to you? For some, it represents opportunity: the chance to go anywhere. Others might actively dislike the noise, the crowds, the aesthetic... Or perhaps you never think too deeply about stations. But they definitely affect you, according to Dr. Manuela Triggianese. “At stations, all scales come together: from the building and its elements, to the neighbourhood, the city, region, even country. They are involved in every aspect of urban life.”@en

With the growing demand for sustainable accountability, the European Directive 2014/24/EU (EU 2014) pushes architects to deliver Building Information Models (BIM) as a part of procurement processes for public buildings. In the Netherlands, BIM model data is relevant to the building permitting process, which involves an environmental performance calculation (MPG). This assessment takes into consideration the embodied carbon of materials in a building. Although this analysis is performed by a qualified expert in late design phases, architects benefit from integrating carbon data in early design decision-making. Design methods supported by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) values are needed before involving expert collaborators, and not only when applying for a building permit. The existing carbon assessment tools require detailed data from BIM models, which are often not available at early design phases. Simplified tools have been discussed in theory, and explored in their potential applications, however, there lacks scientific literature discussing the hurdles designers face in their attempt to create such tools in practice, for their internal use throughout early design phases. This paper focuses on the architecture professional practice and design methods supported by digital and computational technologies, regarding embodied carbon data. It investigates the challenges in integrating embodied carbon data in the design workflow, through the development of a digital tool made by designers, for designers. This paper conducts an empirical investigation within a Rotterdam-based architecture office, with a broad portfolio in BIM usage and public building projects, to identify and categorize the factors affecting carbon data integration into the design workflows. It proposes a taxonomy of challenges within the architecture office, to better communicate the designer's needs to the data providers and software developers with architects as a target user. Amongst the bottlenecks encountered are: access to data (data inclusiveness), data literacy and connecting data usage with design decision-making.@en

The LCS DATA-HUB is an interactive report for the LCS (Low-Carbon Stations) Workshop. The workshop held in March 12th of 2024, in TU Delft, gathered experts from academia, industry and public authorities to exchange knowledge and experiences pertinent to the integration of data (embodied carbon) in design of the built environment.

The event “Low-Carbon Station Workshop: A roadmap for integrating carbon data in cross-scale station design" was organized by PhD Candidate Halina Veloso e Zarate and Assistant Professor Dr. Manuela Triggianese, as methodological support to one of three empirical investigations of Zarate's PhD research.

The workshop aimed to explore the integration of data about embodied carbon in construction materials through low-carbon design methodologies for architecture and urban design, with a specific focus on stations and station areas.

In this platform, you can find the documentation of the event and navigate through the data that supported the hands-on design case of Lombardijen Station.@en

This article explores the pivotal role of design as a decision-making tool within multi-stakeholder collaborations, focusing on the early phases of the Rotterdam Central Railway Station and its surroundings project. Spanning from 1996, when it gained National Key Project status, to 2007, when construction commenced, this period precedes the preliminary design, during which the design process becomes the primary method of collaboration among multiple stakeholders, including designers and clients involved in the station area’s development.

After introducing the post-war reconstruction of the station area and the ‘Platform Zero’ experiment, this article defines three key stages of design in the initial phase, each of which left a distinct mark on the station project. These stages are:

– From 1996 to 2001: Design for political communication.

– From 2002 to 2004: Parallel design.

– From 2004 to 2007: Design co-creation and integration.

To provide a comprehensive view of the design’s development, this article includes insights from conversations with architects and planners engaged in the process. In a dynamic exchange between various stakeholders and designers, the evolution of Rotterdam Central Station’s design reveals how political decisions have been informed by thorough design studies, offering a platform for robust discourse on critical issues.

@en

The book is the result of the course 'City of Innovations Project' at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, led by the group of Complex Projects at the Department of Architecture. 'Transit stations: sub-centres in Rotterdam Zuid' is the theme of the course running in spring 2022. It is connected to the research project Walk-In (acronym of Widening sustAinable mobiLity networKs: Impact on Nodes) financed by NWO and part of the KIEM GoCi program. Students presented their research and design scenarios to the project partners in April 2022 and they learned from their expertise throughout the course. Those are the City of Rotterdam, Delta Metropool Association, De Zwarte Hond, PosadMaxwan, Mecanoo, Bureau Spoorbouwmeester, I&M, Prorail with the collaboration of the University of Gustave Eiffel. By doing so, students contributed to the objective of Walk-In: to investigate the potential of suburban stations in transition in the context of the low car inner city of Rotterdam and to develop generic guidelines and spatial solutions for the integration of sustainable mobility with public space and mixed urban functions and services.

@en

The book is the result of the course ‘City of Innovations Project’ at TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, led by the group of Complex Projects at the Department of Architecture. ‘Transit stations: sub-centres in Rotterdam Zuid’ is the theme of the course running in spring 2022. It is connected to the research project Walk-In (acronym of Widening sustAinable mobiLity networKs: Impact on Nodes) financed by NWO and part of the KIEM GoCi program. Students presented their research and design scenarios to the project partners in April 2022 and they learned from their expertise throughout the course. Those are the City of Rotterdam, Delta Metropool Association, De Zwarte Hond, PosadMaxwan, Mecanoo, Bureau Spoorbouwmeester, I&M, Prorail with the collaboration of the University of Gustave Eiffel. By doing so, students contributed to the objective of Walk-In: to investigate the potential of suburban stations in transition in the context of the low car inner city of Rotterdam and to develop generic guidelines and spatial solutions for the integration of sustainable mobility with public space and mixed urban functions and services.@en

Introduction: In China, Station-City Integration is proposed by the design academy in China to solve problems and add value. This research focuses on urban design for the redevelopment of Old Major Railway Stations in Megacities in China.

Problems & Goals: From our focused cases, two problems are discovered: Stuckness and congestion on peak days, Space underuse on normal days. Two goals are proposed correspondingly: Mobility Resilience and Public Space Flexibility.

Knowledge Gaps: Theoretical and practical knowledge are lacking for the proposed goals. The component words of the goals all have rich meanings. Some of them have related assessment tools and design recommendations.

Research Questions: For urban design research and practice, how can Mobility Resilience and Public Space Flexibility be defined, assessed, and designed?

Deliverables: The deliverables will be Concept Definitions, Assessment Frameworks, and Design Principles. The Concept Definitions offer researchers a new way to see the Station City problems. The Assessment Frameworks offer researchers a new tool to assess the Station City problems through different dimensions. It can also be used for evaluations during the iterative design process. The Design Principles can be used for the scheme establishment.

Methods: For Concept Definitions, papers about mobility, resilience, public space, and flexibility were examined to propose definitions. For Assessment Framework, available technologies & data will be tested. For Design Principles, case studies of the best practices will be conducted.

Relevance: Scientifically, the Problem Identifications show a creative way of framing research problems between specification and generalization. These Concept Definitions show a solid way of transferring knowledge from other disciplines to urban design fields. Societally, the Problems Identifications and Concept Definitions set a starting point for practitioners to take action. The Assessment Frameworks and Design Principles are practical tools for designers.@en

Due to the growing demand for mobility (as a primary need for people to get to work, to obtain personal care or to go travelling), cities continue to be faced with new urban challenges. Stations represent, along mobility networks, not only transportation nodes (transfer points) but also architectural objects which connect an area to the city's territorial plane and which have the potential to generate new urban dynamics. In the 'compact city' the station is simply no longer the space to access mobility networks, as informed by their dry pragmatism, but becomes an urban place of sociality and encounter - an extended public space beyond mobility itself. Which relationships and cross-fertilizations can be significant for the design of the future living stations in the Municipality of Rotterdam? How ought these stations to be conceived in order to act as public places for collective action? Which (archetypical) devices can be designed to give a shape to the ambitions for these stations? The station as a public space and catalyzer for urban interventions in the metropolitan area of Rotterdam is the focus of the research initiative presented in this publication. City of Innovations Project - Living Stations is organized around speculating and forecasting on future scenarios for the city of Rotterdam. 'What is the future of Rotterdam with the arrival of a new metro circle line system?' In the past fifty years, every decade of Rotterdam urban planning has seen its complementary metro strategy, with profound connections with the spatial planning and architectural themes. Considering the urban trends of densification and the new move to the city, a new complementary strategy is required. The plans to realize 50.000 new homes between the city center and the suburban residential districts in the next 20 years go together with the development of a new metro circle line consisting of 16 new stations; 6 of which will connect the new metro line to the existing network. Students of the elective City of Innovations Project (AR0109) have been asked to develop ambitious but plausible urban and architectural proposals for selected locations under the guidance of tutors from the Municipality of Rotterdam and Complex Projects. The Grand Paris Express metro project in France has inspired the course's approach. Following the critical essays on the strategic role of the infrastructural project for city development interventions, the '10 Visions X 5 Locations' chapter is a systematization of the work of 35 master's students with input from designers of the City of Rotterdam and experts and academic from the University of Gustave Eiffel in Paris. The research-through-design process conducted in the City of Innovations project - Living Stations consists of documenting and analyzing the present urban conditions of selected station locations in the City of Rotterdam and proposing design solutions and visualizations of the predicted development of these locations.

@en

While promoting sustainable mobility, stations are considered simultaneously interchanges (or nodes) for different types of mobilities (train, bus, tram, car, P&R, taxi, bike and on demand services) and public spaces (or places) for interactions and social networks, where to meet people and to find different urban amenities 1 . Stations represent a link to both global and local networks (urban, commercial and transport) and therefore they are an integral part of the built environment. They need to be accessible by all and well connected to the entire metropolitan scale. The degree of openness of the station towards the city, its urban permeability, allows for higher quality of life, more social interaction and higher level of inclusiveness. This includes a functional mixité in the station area, blurring station limits (physical and social) by promoting the construction of residential and commercial centers around it. The development of transit-nodes (or stations) has an impact on the social, economic and security issues with the changes directly involved in the urban fabric, including the railways. By reinforcing the transport network, they have to adapt to mobility transitions associated to those changes. In this context, by looking at the sustainable development goals (SDG) related to the relationship Mobility & City, urban transformations driven by the development of transit-nodes comply with the following SDG: resilient city towards an inclusive growth 2 (SDG 11), the healthy city towards well-being environment (SDG 3), booster for innovation and economy (SDG 9). Based on those considerations, the co-creation experiment presented in this book is looking at existing and new transit-nodes along rail-metro networks in the metropolitan area of Rotterdam. By incorporating stations in the city urban strategies, the urban designers, the students and tutors attempt to define stations as destinations by themselves and as inclusive places, in addition to their travel functions. In the academic design experiment (City of Innovations project), the potential of using the design as a tool for co-creation is explored. The approach aimed at connecting the mobility strategy with new opportunities for urban growth and neighborhoods related activities, towards an inclusive and sustainable urban environment. […]@en

After a decade marked by the renewal of grand European high-speed railway stations, today, a second wave of station renewal is at hand. This paper argues the importance of the train station in the historical development of smaller cities. Based on comparative research of recent best practices, the contemporary urban design challenges of smaller and medium-sized stations are explored. The paper concludes that the station is no longer shaped as a monolithic, architectural cathedral, as for the grand stations, but interweaves the world of the passer-by with that of the local inhabitant as a system of public infrastructure and facilities.

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As Covid-19 evidence, urban density[*] proved to be a health risk factor, reclaiming the rethinking for higher sustainability. The investigation on post pandemic strategies in the metropolitan cities of Milan and Rotterdam shows emergent modes of spatial re-appropriation towards better risk adaptiveness. Come evidenza del Covid-19, la densità urbana* si è dimostrata un fattore di rischio per la salute, accelerando la riflessione verso una maggiore sostenibilità. L’indagine sulle strategie post-pandemiche nelle città di Milano e Rotterdam mostra emergenti modalità di riappropriazione spaziale di aree pubbliche residuali per una migliore capacità di adattamento al rischio.@en