This winter, a new S-Bahn line was inaugurated in Leipzig, which has been under construction since 2005. A tunnel that connects the south and north of the city directly - through the center, and not in a detour along a long "loop", as before, was an old dream of the inhabitants of Leipzig. In addition, the new tunnel in the future will facilitate transport links to nearby cities: Altenburg, Zwickau, Plauen and Geithain.
The central section of the tunnel connects the two main stations of Leipzig - the Main station in the northern part of the city and the Bavarian station in the south. In addition to the stations located directly at the stations, the train stops at two more points between them.
The four stations of the new line of the Leipzig S-Bahn railway became a field for the creativity of famous architects who won in 1997 in competitions for the design of each of them. So, we have already written about the station on Wilhelm Leuscher Square, built by the Swiss architect Max Dudler.
And the project of the station at the Bavarian railway station (Bayerischer Bahnhof) was developed by the Dresden architect Peter Kulka. The complexity of the construction of this underground structure was that the station itself is located directly above it - a monument of the middle of the 19th century, the oldest still operated railway station in Germany. Its main entrance, reminiscent of a triumphal arch, is the architectural dominant of the entire Bavarian square. So the architectural bureau of Peter Kulka had no choice but to bow before history and carefully fit the modest entrances to the station into the already existing ensemble of the square, leaving all its imagination for the underground space.
The platform of the Bavarskiy Vokzal station is located at a depth of 20 m and stretches for 140 m in length. Its solution is a play of light and color. Its walls are lined with simple aluminum panels, but this is where the introduction of color into the design of the platform begins: a colored tape runs along the perimeter of the room at eye level; its dull tones are periodically changed with the help of the lamps behind it. But this is only a small detail of the station's design: all the main findings of the architect are concentrated from above.
Peter Kulka strove to make the most of daylight in his essentially underground space. The ceiling is made of glass framed in thin metal fixings, through which daylight penetrates downward. Multicolored spacers are placed “randomly” under the glass roof above the flights of stairs. Bright cylinders resembling cocktail tubes are exclusively decorative elements, but lamps are inserted into the white spacers. In addition, horizontal lamps are also inserted under the stairs, emphasizing the rhythm of the steps. The abundance of light, combined with brightly colored details, makes passengers forget that they have gone deep underground.
It is not the first time that Peter Kulka has used rich color and natural light to create an image: the Museum of Hygiene in Dresden, rebuilt according to the project of his bureau, received the glazed walls of the central hall, next to which there is a hall completely decorated in red tones and a cinema hall with bright crimson chairs. But the flashiness of the interiors does not at all distract visitors from studying the museum exhibits or watching a film - just as the Bavarskiy Vokzal station does not interfere with the successful operation of a man-made rainbow under the ceiling.
