A new station building that will become the face of the town and coexist with it

Stations are places where people come and go and meet, and station buildings are the entrance and face of a town or city. In particular, terminal stations where many train lines converge boast 350,000 users at Hakata Station and 2.4 million users at Osaka Station, including Umeda. Many people come and go through these stations and station buildings every day. It goes without saying that station buildings are very important for the people who use them and for the towns and cities they serve. Looking at examples around the world, there are many historically famous terminal station buildings, and they are still loved by people today as symbols of their cities. On the other hand, due to their nature, terminal station buildings also have high potential as large commercial facilities, and in Japan, many terminal station buildings were built throughout Japan during the high economic growth period as "station buildings," large commercial buildings that incorporate station concourses. Although they were modern and functional buildings, they were uniform, and unfortunately, I think there were no "station buildings" that were suitable as the face of the town or city.

In that sense, the Kyoto Station Building, which opened in 1997, was a shocking "station building" to me. It raised the question of what a "station building" should look like as a place where people meet, as a gateway to the city, as an open place that is conscious of its connection to the town or city, and as a large-scale commercial facility, and I believe that Kyoto Station Building provided a brilliant answer. Even today, there are mixed opinions about the design of the Kyoto Station Building, but the "station buildings" of major terminal stations built afterwards seemed to be designed to be large-scale commercial facilities, while also being conscious of their connection to the town or city, coexisting with the town or city, and opening up to them.

The Hakata Station Building, which opened in March, combines a station concourse with a large commercial facility by utilizing the underground and airspace above the train platforms and station plaza in a multi-level manner, while remaining within the height restrictions imposed by the Aviation Act. Visitors to the station building can enjoy views of the city of Hakata and the sea from within the building's circulation routes, the rooftop terrace, the observation terrace integrated with the large covered outdoor plaza, and the pedestrian deck connecting to the bus terminal. In particular, sightlines to Hakata's main thoroughfare, Taihaku-dori, and Hakata Ekimae-dori, which connects to Canal City and Tenjin, the commercial center of Hakata, are maintained throughout the commercial facility, naturally creating a sense of connection to the city. Furthermore, in a city like Hakata that lacks skyscrapers as landmarks due to aviation laws, the station building's elegant facade design, visible from afar across Taihaku-dori and Hakata Ekimae-dori, is sure to become a beloved new Hakata landmark.

Osaka Station, which opened in May, has a large roof covering the entire five-row train platform, and a huge deck called "Time Square" connects the existing station building on the south side of the station with the new station building on the north side, suspended above the platforms, in an attempt to connect it to "Umekita," a new town being created as a result of the large-scale redevelopment project underway on the north side of Osaka Station. In particular, the newly constructed station north building has a huge atrium connected to "Time Square," from which the under-construction buildings of "Umekita" can be seen as if taken from a borrowed landscape. Also, the observation terrace on the building's rooftop offers a panoramic view of the newly emerging town. Of course, in the future, the new town and this "station building" will be connected by a deck passing through the atrium.

In recent years, station buildings with designs suited to coexisting with the town and acting as the unique face of the town have been constructed in regional and private railway stations. These do not have large commercial facilities, but are open to the town and are loved by people as meeting places. The "station buildings" of terminal stations with large commercial facilities do not realize their potential alone, but rather they must coexist with and open up to the town or city in order to become loved by many people and become the face of the town or city. In this way, the "station buildings" of terminal stations can earn the right to become famous architecture that will be remembered for generations to come.