Wayville Railway Station and Pedestrian Overpass*, Wayville

Built to last and built to leave a lasting impression

Australian Steel Institute (Steel Excellence in Engineering Projects), 2014

The architectural brief was to develop an iconic design for a new domestic train station and pedestrian overpass adjacent to the showgrounds at Wayville. To complicate matters, the project was to be done in the context of both the always-limited budget for public projects and the very tight time constraints of an active site. By implication, this meant that any solution must be ‘off the shelf’. To meet the brief Tectvs adopted a repeatable structural solution using readily available materials, sections, and technologies - or in other words, a ‘meccano-set’ approach.

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Upon reading this adopted solution could lead one to think of the same old design response of what has already been done in Adelaide: a box girder bridge ‘decorated with appliqués of art, materials, and shape: ornaments. As the Architect, Tectvs decided a different, more enticing approach: the structure itself would serve as an ornament.

The Wayville Station and Pedestrian Overpass is an integrated design solution. The form is both expressive and functional. The structure is the generator of the form. To achieve this seamless alliance between structure and form – an appearance that initially presents itself as simple as taking a box girder bridge and twisting it 90 degrees – required a clean design solution. This twisting effect gives the bridge the sensation of being in motion, both viewed from without and from within. In effect, the static becomes dynamic. A sense of movement is further emphasised by the canopy structures that sweep down from the bridge and by twisting the structure off the grid. This sense of motion is symbolic of the dynamism of transport constantly in motion in a modern city, further emphasised at night through light effects that highlight the twisting frames.

Tectvs created infrastructure built to last and built to leave a lasting impression.

*(Designed in association with Moyhla Architects)