Groningen station extensively renovated: the last feat by acclaimed architect Koen van Velsen (74)

When they leafed through the catalog of station buildings, the people of Groningen in the nineteenth century looked a little askance. Those austere halls didn’t suit the capital of the north, did they? They convinced the State Railways and a station building was built with grandeur in neo-styles. This gave the city the appropriate “metropolitan” entrance, he said Newspaper of the North at the time. The appreciation for the station has continued, because in 2019 it was voted by travelers as the most beautiful station in the country.

But: various spatial interventions increasingly oppressed the proud station hall. Many felt that the City Balcony from 2007 was the unsightly keystone in this. This elevated square with bicycle shed obscured the view of the station – but not for long: the detested City Balcony will be demolished this summer. Another unfortunate consequence: to get to the platforms, travelers no longer walked through the opulent station building, but around it.

That sin is also now reversed. Architect Koen van Velsen took the monumental station as a starting point for the renovation. This will soon be central to the routes again. “We carefully studied Isaac Gosschalk’s beautiful building, the materials, the colors, the repetitive shapes. I did not want to create a contrast, but rather a design in line with what I found,” says Van Velsen in the construction shed next to the station.

Architect ‘without style’

It characterizes the architect, who closed his office at the age of 74 on June 30 after a glittering career of more than fifty years. The contractor’s son from Hilversum started designing and making furniture after working briefly at an architectural firm. “Architects gradually lost sight of their first idea. That made me very unhappy. When I started working independently, I resolved to always carefully monitor my idea – from development to implementation.”

His first assignment was a kitchen, then came a barbershop and a disco. While he was training at the Academy of Architecture, he was discovered by the then government architect and was commissioned to do it Military Museum to transform in Delft. With the library in Zeewolde he broke through. He was Railway Architect (2009-2015) and interim Government Architect (2015). But above all he wanted to keep designing. He kept the agency small and the number of assignments manageable. “I didn’t want to become a company, but to make architecture.”

Van Velsen is seen as an architect ‘without style’, who never fitted in with a movement or school. Elusive for architectural historians. Or “remarkably inconspicuous,” as he is city ​​office in Terneuzen typified that Jaap Bakema’s brutalist town hall ‘looks at’. His work was once included in a book SuperDutchbut “I could never recognize myself in that.” Van Velsen works from the specific assignment and location, and tailors the appearance accordingly.

Yet its architecture is distinctive. His buildings are basically simple in design. With lots of daylight, subtle use of materials, use of color and an eye for detail, these are places to which you become increasingly attached. Van Velsen also likes to bring together multiple functions in one architectural gesture, such as with House on South and the gigantic one Multiplex cinema in Rotterdam.

City runs through the building

The newest ‘Van Velsen’ is now in Groningen. The new station stems from the old one: “The yellow and red bricks in the monumental hall were inspiration for our color palette.” From the hall you enter a transition area where old and new meet. The red round platform roofs and the dark green traverse with the signal box are clearly painted. In the new track hoods, which are overgrown with cheerful grasses, trees shoot through round recesses. If you go straight through here, you enter an underground passage to the platforms and the bus terminal. “The descent to the passage follows the perfect symmetry of the old building, with from inside to outside: elevator-stairs-escalators. Most people won’t notice that, but intuitively it makes sense. Someone recently said to me: “Oh, you made that?!” I think that is the greatest compliment. It’s not mine building, but something for here.”

If you turn right or left, you will arrive at the half-covered station square with trees, coffee shops and other catering establishments. Travelers can choose: either quickly go to the train or bus, or grab a terrace. “The station will also become a stopping place, a place where the city passes through the building.”

You even notice this in the underground passage, which is more of a square due to its width. The concrete sand-yellow construction allows plenty of daylight through rhythmic openings. Vides provide surprising views into the bicycle tunnel and bicycle cellar, which are still being worked on. “You will soon see cyclists whizzing past here. A good design is clear, but it is nice if there is also something to discover.” The walls of the passage consist of warm yellow bricks. Artist Gabriel Lester lifted some stones slightly out of the wall. Abstract cloud patterns drift in throughout the station. Outside is inside.

At the end of the passage, where there are currently meter-high sheet pile walls, the route to the south will soon open via a slight slope. This new arcade entrance gives the station “not one, but two fronts”. The station creates a bridge that makes the Spoorkwartier district under construction an integral part of the city. “Pedestrians, bicycles, taxis, buses, trains: it all comes together at one point.”

Looking back on his long career, Van Velsen talks about the prize-winning rehabilitation center Groot Klimmendaala colossal, glass-rich building in the middle of the Arnhem forests, completed in 2010. The healthcare workers came to visit the National Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam, then his most recent project. “Even though it was a completely different type of building, the space allowed us to talk to each other. Experience is an important functionality of a building. You should never forget that.”

Architects nowadays have to be flexible: a mountain of regulations, great financial pressure, and more advisors and parties at the table. Van Velsen would like to give something to young architects: “Don’t do everything, and do what you do well. Put energy into creating support. See progressive insights from clients or cutbacks as a challenge to make a design better. Escaping the rules, that is our profession.”

The agency is closing down, but Van Velsen is too engrossed in the profession to lie on the beach now. “First I finish current projects. Then I will do one thing. Maybe I will design a chair. Or a small building. But in any case it has to be one thing that I can work on with all my attention. So that the design becomes even better.”