Bilbao Metro

A metro system is an excellent demonstration of how the built environment influences the quality of our lives. The building of tunnels for trains is usually seen in isolation from the provision of spaces for people - even though they are part of a continuous experience for the traveller, starting and ending at street level. The Bilbao Metro serves the citys one million inhabitants and was designed and constructed in two phases to create a pair of interconnecting lines along the banks of the River Nervion. It is unusual in that it was conceived as a totality: architectural, engineering and construction skills were integrated within a shared vision.

The great majority of subway systems today are uniformly difficult to negotiate, relying on elaborate signage systems to tell you where to go. In Bilbao, in contrast, the architecture itself is legible. Routes in and out, via escalators or glass lifts, lead directly via tunnels to cavernous stations, which are large enough to accommodate lightweight stainless steel mezzanines and staircases above the trains. The experience of moving through a single grand volume is dramatic, and the concept offers flexibility for future change. The curved forms of these spaces are expressive of the enormous forces they are designed to withstand, while their construction reflects Bilbaos strong tradition of technology. Most of the elements were made locally and Spanish engineers who had pioneered mobile gantries for the aerospace industry exploited this technology to erect the prefabricated concrete panels that line the station caverns.

The curved glassy structures - or Fosteritos - that announce the inner-city Line 1 stations at street level are as unique to Bilbao as the Art Nouveau Metro entrances are to Paris, their shape evocative of inclined movement and generated by the profile of the tunnels themselves. The canopies admit natural light by day, and are illuminated at night, forming welcoming beacons in the streetscape. On Line 2, where deep-cut stations made it impossible to use escalators, banks of large-capacity lifts are grouped in threes to create iconic and easily recognisable entrance points.

Client: Basque Government, Dept of Transport and Public Works, Vitoria
Consultants: Davis Langdon & Everest, Claude Engle Lighting, Arup Design and Research, Mott, Hay, Anderson, London, Otl Aicher, Rotis (Germany), Sener, Bilbao, TYPSA, Madrid