Urban Transport XXI 363

The metro and the city:

interaction with the urban landscape
in the new underground stations in
Valencia 1995–2010
J. Pérez Igualada
Urbanism Department, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain

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.
Keywords: transportation, architecture, subways, metro station, urban design,
Valencia.

1 From the metro entrance to urban space:

access to stations configured through site terrain modeling
The architecture of stations is only a small part of the civil engineering work
involved in the construction of a new metro line. However, this part is essential
for the user, since the stations are spaces that serve to join the underground
network, putting together two different levels or strata of the city, the network of
streets and the subterranean.

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364 Urban Transport XXI

While the metropolitan railway runs on ground level, as in the peripheral or

peri-urban areas of large cities, stations are buildings, clearly identifiable as an
architectural volume, where we enter on one side, buy the ticket in the hallway,
and exit on the opposite side to the platforms to board the subway wagon (Fig.1,
Type 1).

Figure 1: Access typologies in metro stations (H: hallway. P: platforms).

Type 1: Seminari Station. Metro Line 1, Valencia. Type 2: Joaquín
Sorolla Station. Metro Line 1, Valencia.

This direct and legible access system is complicated when the metropolitan
railway lines go into the central areas of cities and become subterranean. As a
result, subway stations disappear as a building in the urban scene, and access to
the platforms then becomes the stairs that descend from the ground level to the
underground level (Fig. 1, Type 2). These stairs are located on the sidewalks of
the streets, and require no special configuration of public space: only that they
are wide enough. The entrances are identified by the user as metro entrances
thanks only to the signaling elements, which have a uniform design in which the
logo and other elements of corporate identity is repeated, as the elegant red circle
with the word “Underground” in London or the modernist label with the word
“Metropolitain” in Paris.
This conventional access system for metro stations, through stairs leading to
an underground corridor or hallway, invisible from the street, was the one used
in the first stations of the Valencia metro network of FGV – Ferrocarriles de la
Generalitat Valenciana (Railways of the Regional Government of Valencia),
corresponding to the central sections of Lines 1, 2 and 3 of the network, built
between 1988 and 1995. A lift connecting the street with the underground
hallway was added to the stairs, allowing disabled access to the station.

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Figure 2: Aragón Station. Line 5 Metrovalencia.

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Nevertheless, in the new metro lines built between 2000 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. These strategies, in addition to providing a specific design for each
particular location within the city, have as a result a better accessibility for the
users, as discussed below.
The first stations in the Valencia metro network designed with this new
approach correspond to Line 5, which links the city waterfront and Manises
Airport. These stations are Aragon and Ayora, included in the section of this line
that was put into service in 2003, which starts in the Alameda station and ends
near the Garden of Ayora [1].
In this stretch we can find three stations (Aragon, Amistat and Ayora)
responding to the same type of plan and longitudinal section. They are placed as
close as possible to the surface, and consist of two levels, with the platforms in
the lower level and the primary and secondary hallways in the upper one. Both
hallways have been designed as mezzanines located at the end of the platforms,
so they allow us to perceive the entire inner space. However, each station has
specific characteristics that derive from their particular urban environment.
Thus, Amistat station, being situated on a boulevard whose central pedestrian
way is narrow, has been designed with conventional metro entrances, similar to
those found in metro lines previously built in Valencia. Instead, in Aragón and
Ayora stations the design exploits their location, with wide adjacent open spaces,
to create through terrain modeling access spaces that are no longer a simple
metro entrance but spaces that although placed at the same below ground level
than the underground hallway can be considered as true urban spaces integrated
with its surroundings.
The route of Line 5 crosses perpendicular to Aragon Avenue, a boulevard
with its central promenade occupied by parking lots, because of its proximity to
the Valencia football club stadium. Aragon station was designed so that its main
entrance coincides with the axis of the Avenue. This entrance consists of two
large patios or plazas below ground, 20x20 meters long, from which you can
access the main lobby on their north and south fronts. The large central space of
the boulevard section is recovered as a pedestrian walkway leading to the patios,
placed on either side of the junction with the cross street of Ernesto Ferrer, under
which the tunnel line runs.
Thus, access to the station is no longer a simple metro entrance but a public
space, as patios provide a seamless connection between the inside and its urban
environment. The transition between the hallway and the outside becomes much
more enjoyable and readable since in our ascent from the platforms we can
perceive on either side of the lobby the transparency crosswise and natural light
that the glass facades which are open to the patios provide, clearly showing us
where the exits are, and allowing us to also glimpse the skyline of the nearby
buildings and know if the day is rainy or sunny.
So, a traditional urban element in Mediterranean cities, the patio, is integrated
in the design of a metro station, a highly technological element of the public
transport infrastructure.

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Figure 3: Ayora Station. Metro Line 5, Valencia.

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The layout of line 5 westward crossed in diagonal a planned neighborhood

park, adjacent to the existing Garden of Ayora, a protected historic green space,
of great historical value, which houses a XIX century small palazzo and a
monumental plant mass formed by different species of large trees.
The planning option chosen was to place the new metro station under the
neighborhood park. This option provided enough open spaces, through terrain
modeling, to configure the entrance to the station as public space, integrated with
the new planned park and the existing Garden of Ayora.
Thus, access to the main hallway of the Ayora station occurs from the north,
near the palazzo, through a landscaped plaza that leads down a wide stairway or
ramp at the front of the station, whose roof level is raised 1.10 m above street
level.
The Garden of Ayora obviously assumes center stage in the whole
composition, because the stunning green front of its woods is a major reference
element in the urban design of the new neighborhood park created on the metro
station. In the design any imitation of the Garden of Ayora has been avoided, a
small scale and intimate nineteenth-century park with narrow meandering paths
and parterres surrounded by hedges, since this would only achieve duplicity, and
would not bring anything new to the leisure facilities associated to public green
spaces existing in this part of the city.
Therefore, the new neighborhood park is planned so that it complements the
Garden of Ayora, providing those spaces and facilities of a current equipped
public park, that the historic garden cannot assume inside: a plaza a kiosk-bar,
sports facilities, playgrounds and even an indoor swimming pool.
In designing the park, the backbone of the whole composition is a street or
walkway that links the opposite corners of the site. This street-walk, located in
tangential position to the underground station, is not a simple rectilinear axis
from side to side, but it is projected seeking an effect of variety and closing of
visual sequences, achieved through offsetting and reinforced by tree alignments
and wooded areas.
The central space of the new park is tangent to the street-walk: a large
elongated plaza located on the station roof, designed as an elevated plateau with
respect to the surrounding streets. This plaza, which looks out onto a balcony on
one side to the station main entrance space, is an excellent viewpoint over the
Garden of Ayora, as well as a paved multifunctional space, with a good size both
for daily use and for special events such as the July fair.
The plaza is equipped with two architectural elements: a pergola and a kiosk
with an “umbráculo” (a shaded roof), both with a wooden ceiling and light steel
structure. The pergola frames the view to the Garden of Ayora, while spatially
separates the plateau from the adjacent street-walk. The shaded roof and the
kiosk located under it, together with a formal grove of orange trees planted very
close to each other, create a permeable boundary on the south side of the plaza.
From the central plateau, the park gently descends to the Garden of Ayora and
the surrounding streets, through a series of sloping meadows whose contour is
adapted to the geometry of the site perimeter.

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Figure 4: Metro stations. Line 5, Valencia, West branch.

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2 Metro stations as emerging landmarks from the world of

underground rail transport: the entrance pavillion
at street level
The stations of Aragon and Ayora, as we have seen, have access spaces that are
no longer simple metro entrances, but spaces that although located below
ground, are designed as urban spaces. Thanks to them, the metro stations
hallways, despite being underground, have a facade to the outside, which allows
direct entry of natural light. This is the first step in achieving that underground
stations play a significant role as a visual reference in the urban landscape.
The next step in this process is taken in the stations planned for the extension
of Line 5 of Metrovalencia to the west (section Mislata – Quart de Poblet –
Manises – Airport, 2004–2007) and the east (Maritimo-Serrería station, 2005), as
well as for the new underground path of Line 3 passing through the town of
Alboraya (Alboraya-Peris Aragó station, 2004–2010) and involves the creation
of a new type of metro station in Valencia, with its hallway designed as an
entrance pavilion at street level [2].
In this type, stations are located as close as possible to the surface, and consist
of two levels, a lower one where the platforms are located, and an upper one
located at street level, where the entrance pavilion can be found at one end of the
platforms and an emergency exit on the opposite end.
The entrance pavilion allows metro stations in Line 5 west branch to retrieve
the character of a public building and the role of visual reference in the urban
landscape that the old stations of commuter rail lines had, according to its
importance as elements that interconnect the towns of the metropolitan area of
Valencia and connect all of them to the central city.
The entrance pavilion gives architectural uniqueness to Marítimo-Serrería
station, which is consistent with its unique character from the railway standpoint,
since it is an underground interchange station between metro and tram, where
Tram Line 4 (Coastal Tram), runs on the surface through the maritime quarter of
Cabanyal, descending through a ramp to the underground level platforms, where
the exchange with metro Line 5 occurs.
Stations with entrance pavilion at street level in Valencia metro network,
although designed specifically for each location, share common features in terms
of accessibility, integration into the urban environment and outdoor and indoor
architectural design.
With regard to accessibility, the main virtues of this new model of station area
are as follows:
a) Direct access to the hallway from the street: The hallway is at street
level, so access to it is performed directly, without having to go downstairs as in
conventional metro entrances.
b) Common access for all users: All users access the station on the same
entrance, (i.e. the door that connects the hallway to the street) avoiding segregate
access for people with disabilities.

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Figure 5: Marítimo-Serrería Station. Metro Line 5 Valencia, east branch.

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c) Platform level close to street level: The location of the platforms nearest
as possible to the surface minimizes the vertical distance to be saved, preventing
the traveler from having to use stairs that are too long.
As for the integration into the urban environment, the choice for a ground
level entrance pavilion means that an appropriate location of the stations has
previously been chosen, to guarantee that the pavilion surrounding public spaces
are large enough to configure an access integrated in the urban landscape.
In the stations of the western section of Line 5 (Faitanar, Quart de Poblet, Salt
del Aigua, Manises, Rosas) the main facade is located under a large atrium or
covered porch open to a square or a large public space. This atrium extends the
roof 10 meters in front of the glazed entrance façade, as a “palium” that protects
it and configures a special urban space, a covered area of transition between the
inside and the outside.
In Maritimo-Serrería station, this transition space takes the form of a large
canopy, which extends enough to cover the tram descent ramp, which is thus
integrated within the volume of the pavilion, so that its visual impact on the
urban scene is minimized.
Alboraya-Peris Aragó station urban environment is an area of about 30 m
wide and 200 m long that was previously fragmented by the railway layout of the
former surface metro line. This space becomes now a landscaped plaza that ends
the new green axis created in the site previously occupied by the tracks. The
small distance between the ground and the roof slab of the underground station,
which hinders the landscaping, leads to the design proposal of a plaza structured
through the architectural elements of the station.
The elements of the Alboraya-Peris Arago station that emerge above ground
level are the entrance pavilion, the emergency exit pavilion and a pergola. The
entrance pavilion has two distinct volumes, which occupy two strips parallel to
the layout of the platform. The entrances and tickets cancellation lines are
located in the highest volume, open at both ends. The adjacent volume, of lesser
height and blind ends, harbors the platform air renewal void, which is brought to
the roof, and also hosts the control module, the elevator and the stairways,
housed in large voids which function as skylights for the platform level. This
lower built structure is connected with the emergency exit pavilion by a pergola
that provides shade to the plaza. A common roof finishing and a uniform
structural rhythm give architectural unity to the different elements encompassed
in this strip.
The architectural design of the entrance pavilions, though specific to each
particular urban environment as we can see, is nevertheless based on common
project criteria for all the stations.
First, it’s a common design goal to create an open and legible architectural
space. To do this, transparency between the inside and the outside of the entrance
pavilion is a positive value, both from the point of view of safety (to avoid visual
barriers) as for an easy identification of the urban environment (by the user who
leaves the station) and the interior elements (for the user who approaches it).

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Figure 6: Alboraya-Peris Aragó Station. Metro Line 3, Valencia. (Photos:

David Frutos.)

A second common feature in the stations’ architectural design is the search

for user comfort. To obtain it in our Mediterranean climate is essential to provide
adequate protection against excessive sunlight.
The combination of these two aspects (sun protection and transparency) leads
to projected architectural solutions, in which we have:
a) An opaque roof, which produces abundant shade. Glazed roofs, thus, are
avoided, because they are problematic in hot spots with little rain, both in terms
of comfort (greenhouse effect) and maintenance (cleaning).
b) Glass facades around the perimeter of the hallway.

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c) An overlapped sunscreen, made of different materials: wood slats in

Maritime-Serrería station, steel slats in the in the western section of Line 5
stations and a glass surface treatment in Alboraya-Peris Aragó station. The
sunscreen occupies only the upper half of the elevation, so that the transverse
visual permeability and transparency in the lower half of the facade is preserved.
The design of interior spaces has been made also seeking interaction with the
urban environment. To do so, the elements of vertical communications (elevator,
fixed and mobile stairs) have been placed in double height voids that connect
visually the street and platform levels. These voids, in various forms (a huge
single rectangular void in the stations in the west section of Line 5, a circular one
in Marítimo-Serrería, several serial rectangular voids in Alboraya-Peris Aragó),
provide natural light to the lower level of the station and make the path to enter
or exit the station more pleasant, clear and legible.

3 Conclusions
We have exposed some strategies of interaction with the urban environment for
metro stations, using as case studies several stations belonging to lines 3 and 5 of
the Valencia Metro network. We can highlight from the analyzed case studies
two main practices or methods useful to be applied in similar urban contexts: the
site terrain modelling to configure access spaces that, although located
underground, are urban spaces integrated with its surroundings, and the design of
an entrance pavilion located on the surface, at street level. Both methods require
close collaboration between engineering and architecture project teams. We have
also showed that these strategies, in addition to providing a specific design for
each certain location within the city, have as a result a better accessibility and
comfort for the users.
The detailed case studies analysis presented in the paper allows us to verify
that through these design strategies metro stations can become emerging
landmarks from the world of underground rail transport and instead of hiding
under the streets, assume the importance of its role in the urban landscape as a
means of sustainable public transport.

Note: All the case studies presented in this paper correspond to stations designed
by the author. The complete credits and details of the projects can be found in
the references. All images in the figures come from the author’s archives, except
where noted.

References
[1] CB Arquitectes Associats, Proyectos y obras 1988–2000. TC Cuadernos, 47,
pp. 20-35, 2001.
[2] Pérez Igualada, J., Arquitectura para el transporte. Universitat Politècnica
de València: Valencia, 180 pp., 2010.

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