Station Arnhem Centraal, Arnhem [NL]

EeStairs + UNStudio

Ben van Berkel of UN Studio designed the OV Terminal at Arnhem, and it was adventurous and award-winning, bringing together rectilinear architectural forms and big sculptural elements next to some platforms. This meant that EeStairs had to make and install very different types of balustrades and railings.

In the station’s high-volume circulation routes, we provided robust circular-section steel balustrades with cross-pieces. But in the areas with more organically complex circulation routes the balustrades and railings had to be equally fluid to follow the concourses and changes of level.

EeStairs found an economical solution: the balustrades were the same as those used for the straight stairs in other parts of the station, but they were rotated to the horizontal and held up by simple steel tripods. Where there were changes of level, EeStairs’ fabricators formed the railings and webs of steel catch-netting so that they followed the edge-lines of the concrete primary structure.