The metro and the city: interaction with the urban landscape in the new underground stations in Valencia 1995-2010

Abstract

The first stations of the Valencia subway lines were accessible by conventional metro entrances, stairs leading to an underground corridor or hallway, invisible from the street and from where you came, directly or through other corridors, to the platforms. In the new metro lines from the network of FGV Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat Valenciana (Railways of the Regional Government of Valencia) built between 1995 and 2010 the architectural design of the stations is addressed in a different way from design strategies that seek greater interaction with the public space and the urban environment. To expose these strategies of interaction with the urban environment, the paper uses as case studies several stations designed by the author, belonging to lines 3 and 5 of the Valencia Metro network.