Uploaded on 2017-02-19 by Amedeo Ardolino

Central station, Antwerp. Belgium, but furthermore the northern countries of Europe, has always used as material, for the houses or not buildings with no public values, wood. Still is a material used very often in the private housing. For the main buildings showing off the power of the city, on the other hand, was preferred ( as is easy to guess ) material such different kind of stones, much more expensive to find and transport due to the lack of quarries in Belgium. As shown in the pic the beautiful central station on Antwerp, constructed between 1895 and 1905, is born obviously such a mix of stone, glass and iron typical of the buildings designed in the beginning of the 20th century. But what I want to put the light on is the newest refurbishment of the rails, in fact, the two sharp wings, the mechanical stairs, the glass and metal fences, the concrete columns are all parts of the new station and as is easy to perceive they speak a totally different language of the original station. Of course in this case it’s true that the design was obliged by technical specification standards, but it’s also true how is strong the presence of use of “globalized material” such as satin iron, white concrete etc.