La poesie des gares and Lisbon Oriente Station, Portugal

摘要

The theme of this issue of Municipal Engineer invites the contemplation of culture, creativity and engineering. This paper locates itself in that fluid cross-over world between engineering, architecture and art. Engineering—an art of guiding force—fused with culture—the art of being human. To the author, the best contemporary synthesis of culture, creativity and engineering is the work of the engineer/ architect/sculptor Santiago Calatrava. Such a synthesis, however, evades his Lisbon Oriente Station, in Portugal, which, paradoxically, brings the issue to the fore and allows it to be discussed. Lisbon's eastern industrial wasteland has been regenerating at a breathtaking pace, as if to keep up with the high-speed trains now calling at Santiago Calatrava's new and controversial Oriente Station, the area's catalyst project. It is controversial because it is a paradox. That paradox, this paper argues, comes down to a denial of the cultural role of railway stations.