ABSTRACT
As a geographical entity, a railway station has two basic, though partly contradictory, identities. It is a node: a point of access to trains and, increasingly, to other transportation networks (Figure 2.1). At the same time, it is a place: a specific section of the city with a concentration of infrastructure but also with a diversified collection of buildings and open spaces (Figure 2.2). Both the practice and the theory of railway station redevelopment demonstrate inadequate understanding of the ambivalent nature of the location, as well as of the interactions between its two connotations. As a consequence, its specific opportunities and problems tend to be overlooked. In order to shed light on the unique challenges associated with the redevelopment of stations, we must first design a framework for their conceptualization both as nodes of networks and as places in the city.
