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Renovation Bergweg Station

From station with stables to catering

Sybold van Ravesteyn built, or rather rebuilt, Bergweg Station on the Hofplein Line between 1958 and 1960. According to his biographer Kees Rouw, Bergweg station:

"by far the most extravagant" of his Rotterdam railway stations, "a cuckoo's egg. The highly graphic white facade with round, rectangular and trapezoidal facade openings makes Bergweg station look like an abstract sculpture in white plaster, travertine, glass and white building ceramics."

There was already a simple platform with shelter at that spot and... under the tracks a horse stable, where travellers could stable their horses while they rode on with the electric train. Van Ravesteyn tinkered and kneaded Station Bergweg through, under and into the existing track and platforms. The station serves until 2006, but the decay is long there by then. There are attempts from the neighbourhood, with children's drawings on tiles, extra surveillance, to do something about it, but eventually the station closes in 2006. While the train continues to run until 2010, it no longer stops at Bergweg Station, which, boarded up, slowly deteriorates further.

The office of Jasper de Haan | Architects has sat three arches away at Voorburgstraat 213 since 1997. Around 2001, they started developing plans for the Hofplein line and its stations, as it was already clear by then that eventually the train would no longer pass over it and something else could be done with the viaduct. In 2014, Jasper de Haan and Jager Jansen founded the Hofbogen Entrepreneurs Association, the HOV. One of its aims is to work with all tenants of the Hofplein Line to buy the viaduct and roof from the corporations in order to develop the transport system jointly as a cooperative. Unfortunately, this is just barely succeeding. The housing corporations retain ownership. However, Jasper de Haan | architects is making a design for the renovation of Bergweg Station together with Jager Jansen.

The starting point of the renovation is to largely restore the station's original exterior. To this end, the facade, canopy and original windows and frames will be restored to their original state, material and detailing. Including the lighting in the canopy and its aluminium edge trim, the flagpole (which unfortunately is still not there), the natural stone and the original colours. On the inside, the interior, which hardly remains, will be removed. The stairs to the platforms will be retained, with the western staircase, which is part of the National Monument in its existing state with ceramic cladding retained as a whole. The eastern, the van Ravesteyn, staircase, which was modified in the 1980s by the NS in the house style of the time, can be clad differently by the user as they see fit. However, the stairs themselves and between landings will be retained. The original "showcase" in the north facade, will also be restored to its former glory. As will the bricked-up round window on the west staircase landing. The original glass seal of the Abri on the platform, including the original planters, will also be restored to its former glory. Also, the original concrete structure from arch 3 to 7 will be completely renovated and restored. Just like the roof, platform and track bed, which could very well be used for a terrace. The concrete columns for the new overhead line will be removed, as will the landscaped "park" on the west side at street level.

The new lettering for the new catering establishment will be placed on the awning. Fortunately, our advice to include the other side of Bergweg in this restoration was followed. The existing façades and brickwork on Voorburgstraat will be demolished for the concrete repair. These will be replaced by facades with vertical steel slender profiles. For this, a five-division is envisaged, giving a certain sophistication and allure to the new infill. Emphasising the verticality increases the contrast with the more horizontal character of the station building, for which an electric locomotive is said to have served as a model. Emphasising the height of the spaces under the platform on Voorburgstraat further helps this. The rhythm of the arches remains visible through the facades. The entrance doors recur symmetrically in the facades, with a horizontal bar above them for advertisements. This subtly connects to the typical horizontal edge of the canopy and the dynamics of rail transport. Any storey floors will be at a slight distance (+/- 10 cm) from the inside of the façade, so that they do not disturb the vertical lines.

The colours of the posts will be grey to anthracite, matching the colour white of the station and the colour of the renovated concrete columns and beams.

On the platform on the west side, there will be a new greenhouse/winter garden over the existing stairwell, whose materialisation and detailing will match that of the facades in Voorburgstraat.

This project was nominated for the Rotterdam Architecture Prize in 2016, where it came second in the audience award, just behind OMA's city office.