A DAY OF DEFAMILIARIZING

Neishi Transit Station

2019 Thesis Design

Instructor: Chia-Ju Lin

In modern society, people's lives are restrained by families, friends, and work. People live monotony life subjects to time. People are used to finishing tasks quickly, fulfilling their free time, replying, and receiving information immediately. People nowadays often overlook the good things in life.

This project is a reflection of monotonous life under a fast-moving modern society. By integrating the feeling of speed and time elapsing people will perceive at different heights and distances on the horizontal site, the vertical tower form of the transit station will make people rethink the question, "How do we experience time?" and have an opportunity to get rid of the monotony of life.

As a container for change of external environmental, the architecture makes time perceivable. As time goes by, the atmosphere of the space will change the way we understand the space.

Parallel tiles of speed

Time / Efficiency / The loneliest station

Station, a node of the transportation network, is a part of most people's life. People go to work, travel to other places from stations. Timetable in the station organizes not only train schedules but also the interval time people wait for trains to make stations operate quickly and efficiently. It is a combination of speed and efficiency.

Surrounded by the blue sea of Taiwan strait, endless mango field, and beautiful starry night of southern Taiwan, it seems to be a totally different feeling in Neishi station. Neishi station is in Pingdong, the south of Taiwan. Only one train will stop here every day. As a result, less than one person is getting on and off every day on average. Unlike other station, Neishi station seems to have nothing to do with time, speed, and efficiency like any other station.

With the implementation of the Hengchun Sightseeing Railway Project, Neishi Station will become a transfer station for the railway, sightseeing train, and bus in 2024. It will be known as a transit point across Taiwan for passengers who want to go to Kenting.

This new transfer station proposal looks forward to provide people with opportunities to get rid of inertial life. People can get involved in the slow pace of Neishi and choose to experience travel and life in different ways while they are waiting for trains rather than ignoring the beautiful things around them when they pass by in a rush.

Height & Sight analysis

Observer's sight and feel of speed according to various distances and different heights

Design approach

Because of Hengchun Sightseeing Railway Project, the volume of the station building will become much more significant than now anyway. Making the station building taller instead allows the building to become be a vertical container that integrates different kinds of speed on the field. A taller tower could also create a dialogue with the platform. The passengers’ feeling of various distances and different heights to the building could provoke passengers’ curiosity about the tower and the external environment during the transfer. Besides, it creates opportunities for passengers to get out of monotonous life.

The concept of the tower can be described in the drawing below. The triangles are the platforms of three different transportation systems, and the thick dotted line is the primary path for people to transfer from the platform to the tower. In addition to the primary path, there are trails where people can explore the site next to each platform. Both roads allow people to reach the transfer tower, and the passenger can take either one as their will. The tower is divided into two parts. The outer part is the space for exploring the natural scenery of the site, and the inner part is the hall of the transfer station, connecting platforms.

Perception of speed

P1: Windows at different heights show a different sense of speed. P2: Layers of speed intersected by people’s perspectives of view. P3: Tall volume creates ample opportunities for light in different angles.

Concept of the tower

H24/Capsule Hotel

Lying in the capsule, people see the sea and the stars in a distance. After a day of travel, it is time to say goodnight. Goodnight Neishi!

Walking through the narrow corridor, there is the endless sea.This is a space for a person and the sea. The height of the tower has brought people closer to the sea.The slow slap of the sea is like the silent poem.

M120/Time-lapse Swimming Pool

People's perception of time becomes unclear as the height goes higher. However, the glass pool that extends out of the wall allows people to look back at busy traffic systems that operate orderly.

M120/Sunset Mango Shaved Ice Shop

The two-hour procedure of sunset is the most recognizable time-change period of the day Facing the direction of sunset, mango shaved ice shop is the last destination for travelers who are not going to check-in in the capsule hotel Eating a bowl of shaved ice along with the scenery of sunset slowly falling into the beautiful Taiwan Strait is such an enjoyment.

T1230/Auditorium

The residents of the Neishi go to church from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm every Sunday The light effect in the chapel changes when time goes by. The direct light at 12:30 will light up the stage that the priests and performers stand on and magnified people’s perception of lapse of time.

Platforms/Waiting Room

The platform and the transport level are the intros to the transfer tower The form of tower is in sharp contrast to the flat base, making people curious about the tower and the external environment.

The transparent hydraulic elevator from the bottom all along to the top of the towers allows passengers to view the spaces and activities in the tower. While the elevator rises, the distance between the passenger and the sky is getting closer. In the closed volume, the elevator serves as a light well which produces different light effects in the tower while people are using the elevator.

Station Tower

The new design of Neishi transit station redefines spaces on people's path up to the top of the tower with a specific code; T stands for timing, M for minutes, and H for hours. Different codes represent specific moments or durations in which people experience these spatial experiences caused by light, sound, and the speed of the external environment. With these experience, people will feel different ways that time flies during climbing and begin a dialogue with the external environment around them.

∞ Sea of Solitude

M120

Time-lapse Swimming Pool

T1500

Cafe’ Under the Water

M120 Sunset Mango Shaved Ice Shop

M030 Seaview Library

Scenarios

The implementation of the transfer station while brings tourists to the Neishi, also destroys the originally slow and lonely pace. When society continues to develop, people become numb under the chase of time. In a fast-moving life, people gradually forget “How do we experience time?”

The new design of the transfer station proposes the possibility of redefining programs with time for the reconstruction of the station. The transfer station integrates speeds people would perceive at different heights and distances on the site with the form of a tower. The tower consists of the space with programs that intersect into a path to the top. People would slowly establish a dialogue with the external environment and time to extend people’s perception of time and speed as they climb up through space and activities (auditorium, seaview library, swimming pool, mango shaved ice shop, and capsule hotels). Animation Link