Ourense Train Station

Location: Ourense, Spain

Client: Adif and Ourense City Council

Date: 2011 Restricted Competition

Total Area: 7.000m² Train station, 7.500m² Bus station, 7.500m² Car park and 20.000m² Landscape

Budget: €67 million

Team credits:

Partner in Charge: Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Design Team: Pep Wennberg, Robert Berenguer, Ravi Lopes, Guillermo Fernandez-Abascal, Manuel Eijo, Alicia Villagrá, Tomas Hallander, Eduardo Sanz de Acedo, Cristina Galmés

Ourense is a city historically related to transport. Located in the intersection of roads, Ourense is a clear example of the urban transformation of a city linked to large structures of engineering and in particular to rail infrastructure. If in the 19th century the opening of the Ourense-Vigo train was crucial, in the 20th century, it was the emergence of the route Zamora-Ourense and there is no doubt that the new construction of the intermodal station in the 21st century, is an opportunity to reinforce the linkage of the city with transport infrastructures. Located in a landscape of complex topographies, the development of these infrastructures has been a big challenge.

The bridges across the Mino are a clear example of the deep relationship between infrastructure and the urban fabric which is characteristic to this city. Already in the Roman period, the infrastructural problem got reflected in the construction of the stone bridge across the Mino. After the industrial revolution, railway architecture gained relevance in the local landscape, with the construction of roads, tunnels and bridges, that had to overcome various natural barriers such as rivers and mountains.

The project aims at capitalizing the presence of the bridge as an important part of the collective memory of the city. The idea of the station emerge as an hybrid between a bridge and a railway tunnel, with a longitudinal section that reflects the first and a transversal section that reflects the second. Both infrastructures, with fundamental characteristics of territorial connection, saw the urban fabric of both sides of the rails which have been segregated until today. The golden colour of the material chosen for the station, aims to represent auriferous past of the city, from which it got its name.