At Abbey Wood the design vision for the station was much more than just building a railway it
was building a railway station and a place and creating a dynamic language that creates
a sense of arrival for passengers arriving here somewhere that previously was perhaps somewhere
where people would pass through but now people now understand it's put Abbey Wood on the map
and that's really really key and it needed not just designers but we needed a lot of input from
Crossrail, Network Rail and local stakeholders like Greenwich and Bexley to support that vision
and and bring it into fruition this interior form of this curving roof is very much about scale of
a building we wanted a very pedestrian scale on the outside and then as you come into the
station we wanted to sort of really be almost cathedral-like as you come in and we wanted
the shapes then to form that intuitive movement through down onto the platform
in terms of the local elements that inform the station design we looked of course at
local elements with the movement of locals around the site the specific site character
but at the time Abbey Wood was a changing place and it still is to a certain extent so we had to
dig deeper we looked further afield at things like Lesney Abbey Woods why people want to come here
how the station would relate to those the ancient woods that character also the fact that William
Morris the arts and craft designer used to come through here on his way to Red House in Bexley and
so that sort of combination of the woods and the arts and crafts combined with also what was Abbey
Wood missing and that kind of mixture created this station which mixes both station form and warmth
with a more civic exterior and arts and crafts in the junction and the handmade steel components in
the roof it was really important when you arrive at Abbey Wood that you have a sense of where
you are and we wanted to bring trees into the station but because of the technical issue of
the interface between station deck and the road we couldn't do that so we brought wood into the
station but we also created a lot of key views with glass throughout the station where we could
so one of the unique things here is how we've designed the station for interchange
we've not just got the concourse up here we've got an entrance on the northern side which allows
passengers to really easily and fluidly get onto Crossrail but we've also got a central
footbridge which has got escalators and stairs and another footbridge at the end and that all
deals and caters for different stopping positions of trains and passenger numbers there are too many
challenges in fact one of those was building over a live operational railway and also the original
station had a lot of ramps coming up over the railway and we took those away and we looked
at most convenient ways crossing the railway convenient ways of getting from the bus to a to a
train station convenient ways of moving throughout the station convenient ways of interchange
how to how to deal with 10,000 passengers in three hours efficiently throughout the station just for
interchange and how to program another 10,000 coming into the station from different areas
around the area what we have done is integrated a lot of the independent components like the signage
we've got the timber seating on the platforms but one key element that we did bring in was the
acoustic cladding they have in the tunnels at the stations at the underground stations so we've
got the GRC you can probably see the perforated cladding in the ticket hall and we brought that
through and even though that's straight rather than fitting into tunnels it brings that common
theme and design language we've also brought in the same color and tone palettes so we've got
whites and greys which will offset all the signage and wayfinding and the passengers themselves
in terms of the material selection for the station first and foremost needs to be robust
and timeless stations designed to last for more than 100 years and how do we define timeless and
that's I mean for us it was a combination of a complimentary palette but also defining materials
that relate to the locality one of those was larch this timber timber roof and on the roof
above that we've got zinc and that's hugely sustainable material it's about 99% recyclable
and will last longer than most other roof finishes and that's key because we've got
three constructions over the railway three parts of the station that connect over the railway so
you don't want people working in height in those areas so that's the best possible solution for
that and the larch whilst the larch defines the passenger environment inside the station that
dynamic feel and warm feel and sense of arrival outside the station it's something very different
the very nature of defining and designing a site-specific response at Abbey Wood
informed the shape and nature of not just the building but the spaces around it so
whilst we've created a site-specific response we were very much interested in what those negative
spaces are between the building and the wider context each side of the station and creating very
very specific public realm and place making at three points around the station and whilst above
it's now seen as a manta ray that's just simply a consequence of of responding to the site one
of the challenges in working on a project of this scale is time when when I started my son
was born and when I finished he started secondary school and that's quite similar to the journey the
station takes from sketch to developing those sketches and ideas to delivering the technical
designs and then finally having a building that sits in its wider context another one of those
challenges are not necessarily the scale but dealing with the complexities of the station
sitting over two local boroughs and working with them and negotiating on ideas and necessities
and this is also a time when the area was in recession and and people were leaving the area
and we wanted to bring them back and that really informed the uniqueness of this station design
one of the most exciting things i've noticed about since since the station opened is not
just how busy it is but how happy people are and I think the quality that the team have brought here
has instilled a sense of pride amongst the community maybe that pride existed beforehand
but now you really start to notice it you see them also being inquisitive about the building
you see them looking at the beautiful roof and I think that's a great thing