Xi’An Train Station

A ring is the ideal symbolic shape to link the several systems involved in the project. It’s a symbol of union, connection, as well as a full open approach to the world, the ancient city and the future one.

In a culture like the Chinese one, where is particularly evident and strong the concept of dualism – between earth and sky, as well as light and dark, mortal and immortal, yin and yang – this couldn’t be the key of our project. The unbreakable bond between these elements it’s been our inspiration: why can’t we make this meeting more palpable, with a building designed to link?

We wanted to make this ongoing dialogue more physical, material.

So the earth level under the ground, showing its hidden parts and to dialogue to the sky. At the same time, the sky bend over to the earth, and the man in the middle allows the meeting between them to occur. As the sky is attracted by the earth and generates an inflection in the soil, so a part of the earth detaches from the ground trying to reach the sky. This powerful meeting generates a green roof that refers to the mountain skyline that goes from the city of Xi’An to the near Sichuan province, creating a beautiful succession of peaks and valleys that allows the visitors to approach the building on different levels and to walk through all the perimeter in a high park that walks over the railways, relinking the two half of the area.

When the earth rises, it shows the ancient china’s roots: here, in the passing of time, between past and future, the man has his place.

At the center of the ring a huge round garden: this garden opens to the sky and aim to create a new biodiversity, une boule de nature, a green beating hearth. Each passenger, approaching to the new Xi’An Train Station, will be pushed into a big forest so that trees, plants, water, will be the first elements that the visitors will see from the train. The garden gives the opportunity to experiment a modern Chinese garden, circled by the sinuous path of the roof. A mountain, a tangible element that rises from the earth to reach the sky, allowing men to do the same.

From the triad “Earth-Man-Sky” comes an open building where millions of roads will intersect, millions of journeys will start and end.