Grand Station
How can a transit station orchestrate the flows of urban life?
Situated as an intermediary juncture between the suburbs and the city of northern Manila, Grand Station acts as a critical nexus within the city.
Location
Manila, Philippines
Research Areas Parametric Design
Typology Transport
Size
Large
Status Complete
Project Team Carlos ArnaizLaura del PinoJessy YangAlex TsengLinnea Cook
We consider each project on its own terms and develop tailored responses. Learn about our vision and mission.
Through a series of methodical conceptual studies, CAZA reconceived the former railway and metro hub as a mixed-use retail space.
We centered our concept on the transitions around the actual architecture, rather than on the form itself. This allowed us to conceive of Grand Station as a “leftover” that enables the urban flows around it.
Our approach is strategically driven and informed. Click here to learn about our process.
We created a seamless pedestrian circulation system and maintained the building’s existing structural links with all major railways. A sunken open-air garden at the heart of the cubic structure unifies the outdoor public platforms that connect to pedestrian streets and the elevated railway station.
Our design unites animated public spaces with varied shopping amenities, and asserts the site’s importance in the urban fabric. It effectively balances the programmatic activation of lifestyle amenities with an attentive respect to the station’s history—drawing on energy-efficient, metabolic architecture, and eco-industrialization principles, and employing modular and parametric design strategies to future-proof the station with resiliency.
