The tender
The design proposed by Esteyco, UNStudio and b720 under the motto “Chamartín Open Ecosystem” has obtained the maximum score in the international tender for the remodeling of Chamartín railway station. The jury, of 16 members, included representatives from the Ministry of Transport, Adif and Adif AV, Crea Madrid Nuevo Norte (CMNN), the local and regional administrations, the Transport Consortium and professional associations. Adif Alta Velocidad (AV) announced on Tuesday the winning project of the international tender launched a couple of years ago to comprehensively remodel this communication node, which aims to become an international benchmark for sustainable, integrated and multimodal mobility. The competition has been developed in two stages where Esteyco, UNStudio and b720 have reached the top score, both in phase 1 and phase 2, in competition with the rest of the teams, among which were architectural studios and engineering firms of international renown. The evaluation criteria included among others functionality (railway, retail, industrial and business), constructive and economic feasibility, accessibility and integration in the city, and the environment, image, all within a global sustainability framework. The contract for the transformation of the Chamartín station will be awarded once all the documentation of the selected group is validated and the Board of Directors of Adif AV gives the go-ahead, something that is expected to happen in the coming weeks.

The proposal
The proposal, includes two arrival and departure terminals, completed by placing the retail, industrial and business areas in three towers connected to the city and the station, thus generating an open ecosystem that interacts with the city. It also respects the heritage of Chamartín, as it recovers the vaults as a singular iconic element of the station and complements it with a system of landscaped terraces that are integrated with the green axes that surround the development. In this way, the station opens itself to the citizen and get intertwined with the parks that will be undertaken on both sides. The winning project transforms the station into a large courtyard and generates internal routes around the tracks and platforms, which will guarantee connectivity and enhance the flow of pedestrians between the accesses from its four facades. In addition, to facilitate accessibility and mobility, two secondary lobbies have been planned. The design allows and facilitates the intermodal connection, with access by Agustín de Foxá, to other modes of transport: metro, bus, active mobility (pedestrians, bicycles, scooters …) and taxi. A new public square commercial area is proposed, in addition to three towers, which will house offices with flexible spaces and optimal natural lighting.

The tender includes the integration of the infrastructure with the Madrid Nuevo Norte development, a project called to transform the capital city in the northern Castellana area. Sustainability guides the solution in its whole and especially sustainable mobility, ordering passenger flows, connecting the station with other modes of transport that promote soft mobility above other modes as the general strategy of the development. The works will follow the undergoing works that Adif AV is currently performing at the station to double the high-speed trains capacity and passengers´ hall, as well as to order flows and facilitate the connection with other urban transport modes, maximize the tracks and platforms for suburban trains and the medium and long-distance network. Adif AV will invest more than 1,000 million euros in all these activities, including those of the future station, which will be developed in phases.

The team
The result would not have been possible without the collaboration of the different companies of the group, Esteyco, UNStudio and b720, which have been able to combine engineering, architecture and railway functionality to create a station for everyone and a milestone for the city of Madrid.