The station has become a critical link in China's growing high-speed rail network. It is assumed that it will serve up to 300 thousand passengers daily. In order to cope with such a flow, to provide easy navigation through the building and equal access to infrastructure not only for passengers of trains, but also for taxis, cars, buses and subways, Terry Farrell used the airport layout and placed the arrival and departure zones at different levels.
28 platforms for incoming trains are scattered on the first level; the departure has been raised one floor above. Six semicircular "vaults" above the platforms are reminiscent of the train stations in Victorian England. The bending angle of the roofs is calculated so as to protect the station from the wind as much as possible and to reduce it during the passage of trains. Across the vaults, a glass ridge is cut - a 348-meter passage above the departure hall, which widens to the western and eastern entrances to the station and forms canopies above them.
This unique engineering design eliminates the need for supports in a record-breaking space. In addition, it acts as a convenient tool for navigating the building: it is coordinated with the route of movement of passengers and almost automatically leads them to the main entrances, which flow into two green areas adjacent to the station. By the way, Terry Farrell used a similar technique in the project
Beijing South Station, where separate functional areas are also combined into a single space to facilitate orientation.
The station has three floors, as well as a mezzanine with a food court; in two underground levels, it connects to three metro lines; there are also parking lots and technical rooms. At both ends of the station, opposite the main exits, there are atriums connecting the arrivals area with the departure area and the waiting room.
N. K.
