train — Michele Hratko

Speculative Train Station

The final project for a Global Online Academy Architecture course was to design a building for your community that addressed the UN’s Sustainable Development goals. I chose to redesign the Menlo Park train station with the goal of making it more sustainable and an enjoyable place for commuters and students to hang out. I designed a building where the train would run underneath it to maximize space for a library, study rooms, cafe, and seating area upstairs.

Spatial Environments, 3D Modeling, & Physical Prototyping
Time: October - December 2021
Role: Sole designer
Tools: Procreate, Watercolors, Hand-drafting, Chipboard

Final Presentation Board
A blend of renderings, models, and a floorplan to visually represent the building concept and interior spaces.

Floorplans

Chipboard Model (1/8th scale)

Full Process

The issue: Commuters need a place to wait for their train where they can buy a ticket, get a snack, and work or relax. Students also need a place where they feel safe doing homework or studying especially at night due to the station’s proximity to several schools. The station is also right in downtown Menlo Park; a redesign could prompt train use when people go out to dinner downtown.

Users: Students and people who commute to Menlo Park

Considerations: Trains produce smog and pollution which needs to be addressed if the train station is going to be a place where people can spend time working, socializing, or relaxing. Planting trees in and around the station would help absorb pollutants.

Sustainable Development Goals: #11 Sustainable cities and communities, #13 Climage action

Ideating Floorplans

I used bubble diagrams to design the circulation through the space considering the size and needs of each space, and which spaces should be more central and public, like a park, and which should be quieter and private, like the library. Ultimately, the ground floor was more public since this would get the most foot traffic as people pass through the train station, and the second floor was more private since people had to intentionally go upstairs. These diagrams informed the shape of the building.

Ideating Interior Spaces and Design Language

After creating a physical model of the building, I roughly sketched ideas for the interior spaces in Procreate, exploring color palettes, materials, and furniture concepts. Eventually these became more solidified via watercolor renderings.

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