Canada Water Station - Architecture

Architecture

Below ground view of the "drum" Canada Water station

The station, which was the first to be designed in the Jubilee Line Extension project, has been described by the Hong Kong MTR's chief architect Roland Paoletti as "the only station on the JLE that has been built to the strict engineering economies of the specification of a Hong Kong interchange station." Above ground, its most salient feature is a striking glass "drum" 25 m (82 ft) across, which covers a deep opening descending almost to the Jubilee Line platforms, 22 m (72 ft) below the surface. This feature was designed to allow natural light to reach deep into the station, a design principle common to many of the stations on the Jubilee Line Extension. The drum was designed and constructed by Buro Happold. It is notably similar to the brick drum designed by Charles Holden for Arnos Grove station on the Piccadilly Line in the 1930s, but is much more oriented towards the entry of daylight.

The drum is accompanied by a glass-roofed bus station designed by Eva Jiřičná which serves as a hub for services in the Rotherhithe and Bermondsey areas. The bus station was designed to fit in a relatively small site between the station drum, the railway's ventilation openings, a high wall and the adjoining tower blocks. Its most distinctive feature is a row of 16 m (52 ft)-long roof spans cantilevered from a row of central columns supporting a 100 m (330 ft)-long glass and aluminium canopy. This provides acoustic protection to the residential blocks and shelters passengers waiting below.

Below ground, the station is dominated by a huge concrete box, large enough to accommodate one of the Canary Wharf skyscrapers on its side. It is lined by a series of huge concrete pillars designed to take the weight of a planned nine-storey building on the surface as well as the roadway and bus station. The station has four lifts and eight escalators with an average rise of about 6.5 m (21 ft) to connect the lower parts of the station with street level. It is built on three levels: the ticket office and shops lie immediately below ground, the two north-south East London line platforms are situated on the second level 11 m (36 ft) below the ground, and the two east-west Jubilee line platforms are on the lowest level 22 m (72 ft) down.

The station was the winner of the Civic Trust Building of the Year Award for 2000, and the Interchange Awards' Medium Size Project of the Year award for 2001.

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