Nordpark Cable Railway
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Location:
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Hohenstrabe 145
Innsbruck
6020
Austria
coordinates:
lat 47.2862434, long 11.4002037
Building names(s): Nordpark Cable Railway
Architect/Designer:
Zaha Hadid
architect website: www.zaha-hadid.com
Other Information:
Completion date: 2005
Function:
The Nordpark Cable Railway comprising of four new stations and a cable-stayed suspension bridge over the river Inn, connecting the mountain village of Hungerburg with the centre of Innsbruck. Starting at the station of Congress in the centre of the city, the railway travels to Loewenhaus station before crossing the river, ascending the Nordkette Mountain north of Innsbruck to Alpenzoo station. The final station is at Hungerburg village, 288 metres above Innsbruck, where passengers can join the cable-car to the summit of the Seegrube Mountain.Structural engineer: Bollinger & Grohmann
website: www.nordpark.com
hours:
SEKTION I HUNGERBURG
Mon. – Fr: 07.00am – 7.30pm
Sat., Sun and Holidays: 8.00am – 7.30pm.
The service runs every 15 minutes.
getting there:
Car: Take the highway exit Innsbruck Ost (east) or Innsbruck West and drive toward Innsbruck Zentrum (centre) – Congress. For those wearing winter sport clothing, the journey there is free on all lines of the IVB (Innsbruck transport operator) within the Innsbruck urban area. The journey back is also free for anyone with a valid ski pass or season ticket. The J line of the IVB goes to the Hungerburg every 15 minutes.
Last modified: 22 May, 2009 | Suggested By Hannah B
‘We wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside,’ said
Zaha Hadid of these four gleaming, curvilinear glass stations and accompanying suspension bridge.
The designs are all variations on a suite of parts made up of concrete station platforms, lifts, stairs and sensuous protective canopies. The key relationship within each composition is between the concrete which forms a supporting platform, and the over-sailing canopy that acts as a heraldic signal to announce the presence of the station.
The base can be read as a moraine, connected to the earth but given form by a glacier. The canopy can be imagined as like the glacier itself, a changeable, luminous monolith curved as if shaped by melt water.
The construction of the three dimensionally curved glass forms is an achievement of great virtuosity. In the development of Zaha Hadid’s architecture from drawing to construction, this project represents a milestone in achieved form.
Zaha Hadid Architects won the competition to create Nordpark Cable Railway in 2005 together with the contractor Strabag. The railway is the second project completed by Zaha Hadid in the city; the Bergisel Ski Jump by Hadid was completed in 2002 and awarded the Gold Medal for Design by the International Olympic Committee in 2005.
Zaha Hadid explains that the design for each station adapts to the specific site conditions at various altitudes, whilst maintaining the coherent overall architectural language of fluidity. This approach was critical to the design for the railway, and demonstrates the seamless morphology of Hadid’s most recent architecture.
“Each station has its own unique context, topography, altitude, and circulation. We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements – as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.” says Hadid. “A high degree of flexibility within this language enables the shell structures to adjust to these various parameters whilst maintaining a coherent formal logic. Two contrasting elements ‘Shell & Shadow’ generate each station’s spatial quality, with lightweight organic roof structures of double-curvature glass ‘floating’ on top of concrete plinths, creating an artificial landscape that describes the movement and circulation within.”
New production methods such as CNC milling and thermoforming guaranteed a very precise and automatic translation of the computer generated design into the built structure. The architects used state-of-the-art design and manufacturing technologies developed for the automotive industry to create the streamlined aesthetics of each station.
The Nordpark Cable Railway continues Hadid’s quest for an architecture of seamless fluidity, representing Zaha Hadid Architects’ very latest contribution to the current global architectural discourse in digital design and construction.
Construction details on this project can be found in DETAIL magazine
including:
1:10 Sectional detail glass roof vertical
1:400 Floor plan of Hungerburg station
1:400 Section of Hungerburg station
1:5 Sectional Detail glass roof Horizontal
Isometric of steel-rib roof structure