King's Cross Station in London
Completed in 1852, King’s Cross is one of London’s most important railway termini, but to cope with the swelling number of passengers, it had become necessary to modernize the station. An urban master plan drawn up in 1998 proposed moving the station hall to the west. The new Western Concourse, with shops and restaurants, is impressive for its filigree, white lattice structure. The ticket offices are situated opposite in the western wing, where the old listed building has been care-fully restored. In front of its brick facade, a series of white steel columns grows from the ground, branching out to form the curved roof. The whole is covered with insulated aluminium panels and areas of glazing. The design of the Western Concourse was made in close collaboration with the structural engineers, for building constraints posed a number of difficulties. Beneath the ground, for example, is the new London Underground Northern Ticket Hall so that only at a few points was there space for new foundations. Nor was it possible to transmit loads into the Western Range, which is a great one listed building.The approximately 7,500 m² semicircular concourse area with a radius of 60 m is now covered by a free-standing, steel lattice-grid roof. This consists of a series of radial box girders of different depths and steel tubes set on the diagonal. Standing centrally in front of the existing building is a funnel-like structure into which the lattice-shell flows and which also bears the loads from it. Columns suspended from the arched edge beam support a glass-louvre facade, allowing natural lighting and ventilation.
