Grimshaw has revealed the final design for City Rail Link, or CRL in short, a large infrastructure project in Auckland, New Zealand. The project includes four new train stations and a 3.45km twin-tunnel underground rail up to 42 meters below the city center. It was developed in collaboration with WSP as part of the Link Alliance, a consortium of seven companies tasked with delivering the main stations and tunnels for the CRL project. The design of the stations is also developed in partnership with Mana Whenua, a local tribal authority that aims to integrate the narrative of the Māori creation story, Te Ao Marama, into the design. Each station's image and identity are a result of this collaboration, and it responds to the characteristics of each location as defined by Tāmaki Makaurau, the Māori name for the geographical region of the city of Auckland.
Once completed, the CRL will double the capacity of Auckland's rail network. The project includes transforming the Britomart Transport Centre into a two-way through-station, constructing two new underground stations, and a new interchange station. The project is developed in anticipation of Auckland's population doubling by 2050 to 2.3 million people. According to Grimshaw, Auckland's entire rail network is expected to carry between 20 and 25 million passengers per annum. The City Rail Link will drastically reduce journey times within the city center.
The design team has enlisted the expertise of eight local tribes to create a local identity for each station. The four new stations have been given te reo Māori names: Maungawhau (Mt Eden), Karanga a Hape (Karangahape), Te Wai Horotiu (Aotea), and Waitematā (Britomart). These names represent essential elements of iwi tradition and heritage and reflect significant geographical features of each location. Furthermore, each station's design elements use a pattern language that aligns with the given te reo Māori names.
The entrance of the station, called Maungawhau, translating to mountain (maunga) of cork tree (whau), features floor-to-ceiling walls made from patterned precast concrete basalt inserts. The 53 lava-colored glass tringles are organized to represent a map of the volcanic field. The design references the atua Mataoho, the deity recognized as the creator of the basaltic volcanic field in Tāmaki Makaurau.
All four CRL stations are designed around the creation story with Ranginui (the sky father) and Papatūānuku (the earth mother). The design for Karanga a Hape Station also references their son, Tāne Mahuta, God of the forest, who pushed his parents apart to create light (day). Allusions to the kauri tree are shown through the large snail shells (pupurangi) on the entrance ceiling of Karanga a Hape Station.
The entrance of the Te Wai Horotiu (Aotea) station features rods of varying lengths that are suspended from the ceiling. The undulating pattern reflects the water and the area's kaitiaki (guardian). In doing so, the station also references a former well on the site, a water source that provided a service to local people for cooking, cleaning, bathing, and growing food, and now Te Wai Horotiu Station (Aotea) will provide the service of transport. The Waitematā Station (Britomart) reflects nearby Waitematā Harbor. The station is built on land reclaimed from the harbor close to where the waters of the harbor and Waihorotiu converge.
Grimshaw is an architectural office founded in 1980 by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw. Recently they have been selected to design Budapest's New Nyugati Railway Station. Following an anonymous international competition, the winning design creates a "permeable station campus" with a series of car-free streets, walkways, public squares, and a park. Similarly, Grimshaw Architects has finally received planning permission from Lancaster City Council to begin constructing the Eden Project North, a new addition to the Eden Project focusing on the health and well-being of its visitors.
