Spanish architects Subarquitectura have sent us images of this tram stop they built on a roundabout in Alicante, Spain.

With the project, which was completed last year, the architects wanted "to turn a traffic circle into a public space".

The following is from  Subarquitectura:

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TRAM STOP
Sergio Cardell Plaza. Alicante. SPAIN

Light Light

Alicante is a 400.000 inhabitants city of the southeast mediterranean spanish coast.  Over the last years,  there has been building a new tram infrastructure, using the old rails of the local train. This line connects all the towns of the coast, ending in Denia, a northern city of the province, where ships departure to Ibiza.

This stop, is the central stage of a new line of the tram, that links the centre of the city to the residential areas of San Juan beach.

The construction of the Tram Stop was the opportunity to bring back a stolen space to the city: to turn a traffic circle into a public space.

Through a fractal access system deformed in each side to avoid the existing trees, the travellers can arrive in a frontal way to the platform in 32 different possibilities.

Over the platforms, 2 empty boxes (36 m long, 3 m wide, 2,5 m high) create a floating void slightly over the travellers’ heads. It matches the size of the train, creating an intermediate scale between buildings and urban elements.

There is no difference between structure and envelope, neither between roof and walls. It is an isotropic material in both conception and construction.

The holes reduce the weight as increase the resistance to normal tensions, and equally decrease wind pressures among the surfaces. Light and air pass through, smoothing the shadow and generating a soft breeze in summer months.

At night the boxes are transformed into two giant lamps.

Benchs are spread over the garden close to the vegetation and the paths, creating a public place overlaying the quiet of the seated people and the movement of the people walking.

Each of the pieces has:

800 holes, in 5 different sizes:

440 diameter 10 cm
240 diameter 20 cm
80 diameter 30 cm
24  diameter 40 cm
12 diameter 50 cm

25 steel tons

13 bar lights

36 meters length
22 meters cantilevered

2 compressed supports
2 stressed supports

And…

32 access paths

20 benchs
12 bins

TIMMING

5 months designing
4 months prefabrication
3 months executing