HSR Stations design guide | Architectural Design

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Design of High Speed Rail Stations

India has a huge railway network. The length and spread of railway networks is amazingly vast. India ranks first in the length of railway network in Asia and second largest in the world.

Development of High Speed rail Networks is catching up a lot of speed in Europe. USA government is taking initiatives in order to develop HSR stations and enhance their public transport system.

HSR Station design by Santiago Calatrava
HSR Station design by Santiago Calatrava

United States of America is now realizing the importance of the nature of railroads and the power and speed of trains. It was seen that the number of road accidents had considerably increased. It was found that the increase in the number of road accidents was directly proportional to the decreased use of railways.

Indian Railway Ministry has ambitious plans for the development of railways for the year 2020.

Being able to design Railway Station keeping in mind today’s needs is very important. This article is dedicated to the basics of design of High Speed Rail Station. This will give the readers an insight on the design of HSR/Metro Stations.

Let us first understand the importance and function of a Station.

Stations are places where passengers check in and check out of the train. Station is the first point of contact between the passengers and the railway. It is to be understood that stations should be well designed, comfortable, aesthetically appealing, functionally efficient (efficient layout and planning of station will ensure efficient circulation).

My entire purpose for writing an article on the Design of HSR Stations is to help you understand all the design considerations that are to be importantly incorporated.

We would be discussing the design considerations for the important station areas so that designing could get handy.

Important Station Areas:

Energy Efficiency | Sustainability

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Sustainability and Design | Energy Efficient design techniques

In one of our earlier articles, we made a questionnaire on “Energy efficient Techniques”. In this article, we will discuss the answers to each of those questions.

Energy Efficiency Questionnaire

Achieving Energy Efficiency through Urban Planning

Hong Kong | Urban Planning Setup
Hong Kong | Urban Planning Setup

What is Energy Efficiency? Define Energy Efficient Architecture.

Energy Efficiency implies on using less energy to required for various products and services without compromising on the need of the usage.

“Energy efficiency” and “energy conservation” are not similar.

Let us study with the help of examples:

Examples of Energy Efficiency

When the walls and roofs are insulated, the use of air conditioners and heating systems is reduced while still keeping the indoor environment comfortable.

When a refrigerator or washing machine is replaced by the same appliance that require lesser amount of energy to carry out the same function is called “energy efficiency”.

Examples of Energy Conservation

When a tube light is switched off during day time, it can be termed as energy conservation.

 For what purpose is the significant amount of energy used in homes?

Energy is mainly used for cooling and heating purposes. Air conditioners and heating systems require extensive amount of energy for its functioning.

Hence, designers must design the house in such a way that the use of air conditioners and heating systems can be minimized without compromising on the comfort.

What is to be done in order to avoid the extensive use of air conditioners for cooling?

The orientation of the house/any building should be taken into consideration. Climatological aspects of the place have to be studied before designing the structure.

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Energy Efficiency through Urban Design and Urban Planning

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Energy Efficient Methods to be adopted for Town and City Planning

Urban Design and Urban Planning plays a great role in achieving energy efficiency. Planning of towns and cities is an extremely important aspect in order to achieve energy efficiency.

In this article, we will discuss how efficient town planning can help in achieving energy efficiency. We will mainly focus on the architectural planning part of the town planning.

Rectangular Pattern with superimposed diagonals
Rectangular Pattern with superimposed diagonals

How does town planning help in resolving the problem of energy consumption?

A town planner has to take into consideration various amenities and facilities that are to be incorporated in a town. For resolving the problem of energy consumption, “Polycentric urban structure” has to be designed.

The centralization of all various important amenities and facilities has to be necessarily incorporated. This will help in reducing the distance of the people travelling from various points in town. The shape and form of the town and the road network should be so designed that the walking distance from any point in town is not more than 7minutes to 10minute walk.

If possible, pedestrianized streets have to be designed in order to create a safe pedestrian environment.

Encouraging travel by foot will help reduce the need for two wheeler and four wheeler vehicles. This will help in saving fuel. Saving fuel will cut travelling costs as well as it will help conserve the non-renewable sources of energy.

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Development of Architecture | Bases of Evolution

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Development of Architecture

On the Concept of Life:::
Love and Hope always exist in life and are an indispensible part of life. Death is the ultimate stage of life.

The study has showed that the development of architecture took place on the basis of Life, Love, Hope and death. This might sound a little philosophical but that is how architecture has been born and developed.

Life

Sounds interesting…! Let us open up our imagination and give it a thought. How did architecture actually develop? What was the primary reason for its development?

All of us have read History books in school where we learnt about the stone age man and his gradual evolution to becoming an intelligent creature.

In earlier times, man lived in jungles with the wild beasts. He knew that he had to protect himself from the harsh changing weather and the wild animals around him since he wanted to survive and live safely.

Initially man started looking for ready made dwellings (nature made).

Ggantija Temples | Neolithic Age
Ggantija Temples | Neolithic Age --- Some of the world's oldest free standing structures

For example: Rock cut caves, dolmen etc.

Early man did not have a permanent shelter. He kept wandering from place to place for food. Wherever, the rock cut caves were not an option, he started using reeds for building huts and saplings for making tents sheathed on bark.

Gradually, the ancient cave man started advancing by trying different building materials for the construction of homes.

And today, all of us are aware of the amazing constructions happening around the world. Various mansions, palaces, skyscrapers, various types of buildings. The advancement in technology has changed the scenario of architecture.

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