Aotea Station: Design features of City Rail Link’s new transport hub unveiled
Friday, 20 December 2019
When it is completed the City Rail Link's underground Aotea Station will be the busiest train station in the country and a new video shows it won't be lacking in innovative design and art features either.
The station will sit under Albert St between Wellesley St and Victoria St and will handle up to 54,000 passengers an hour at peak times.
At the Wellesley St entrance to the station there will be hundreds of rods suspended from the ceiling to create a dappled lighting effect to mimic water. According to CRL the rods are designed to represent the stems of flax plants when made into piupiu skirts.
While inside the station itself there will be seven skylights to represent the seven stars of the Matariki constellation. And the internal station walls and acoustic panels in the station will be modelled on Maori woven patterns.
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The CRL project was shortlisted in the Future Infrastructure category of the 2019 World Architecture Festival held in the Netherlands this month. The project, designed by two companies Jasmax and Grimshaw in partnership with mana whenua, had already won the World Architecture Festival WAFX cultural identity award earlier in the year.
According to Auckland Council the key concept designs for the Aotea and Karangahape underground stations and the re-designed Mt Eden station were based on the traditional narratives of Auckland iwi.
The CRL is a 3.45km twin-tunnel underground rail link up to 42 metres below Auckland city centre. It will run from Britomart, up Albert Street and onto Karangahape Rd before going under the motorway and linking up with the existing western line at Mt Eden.
The project, which is expected to double Auckland's rail capacity, is being jointly funded by the Government and Auckland Council and is expected to cost $4.4 billion before being completed in 2024.