Baab e Bahawalpur - Railway Station Bahawalpur

Abstract

Space is shaped by elements of history and nature, and cities are a product of the stories of the past. Today, buildings aim to achieve agelessness with no respect for the dimension of time. In the era of urbanization, it is a human need to recognize and celebrate our roots; hence, the idea of belonging needs to be anchored. It has become a function of architecture to facilitate this need. "There is a need to accord space, time and place for a liminal feeling ... there are two mistakes which all individuals do: 'we provide no ritual space at all in our lives ... or we stay in it too long."'- Carl Jung Bahawalpur itself is a city of celebrated heritage and forms a distinct identity in the region. The Princely state of Bahawalpur hosts wonders of architecture existing as an amalgamation of Roman, Italian and Islamic elements that become native to the city of Bahawalpur. This thesis aims towards creating a gateway to the city that responds to identities with time. A traveller realizes time as a realm of transition in its deeper sense, travelling from one place to another involves transition and arriving or departing creates thresholds. The idea is to create analogies with these transitions and thresholds to form a dialog with identities. This dialog is achieved through placemaking in tangible and intangible perception. The circulation of the station acts as a path that performs the narrative of the city through the use of design elements like repetition, contrast, visual connectivities and scale. A design that is placed in today but responds to yesterday and guides towards tomorrow.