The Workshops at Atelier Néerlandais

During the event at the Atelier Néerlandais in Paris, and in line with the considerations on the scope of the « Grand Paris Express » and the « Randstad » in the Netherlands, all the themes mentioned in the previous articles on Stations of the Future have been addressed. A selected group of professionals, stakeholders, experts, designers and scientists from both France and the Netherlands were invited to share their experience, knowledge, and expertise. We had lectures and debates on exemplary case studies in both countries in order to understand the different roles that stations are playing and will play in these metropolitan areas. In working sessions, the participants focused on: the intermodal character of the station, as ‘node’ and as an ‘urban place’, the catalyst role it plays in the city becoming a ‘destination’ by itself, and last but not least the potential of the ICT technology to make stations user-centric. Several research questions and definitions were developed in these sessions on the following topics: business cases of rail-metro stations, public space and architecture, densification and programming of station areas, crowd sensing, way-finding and navigation systems, pedestrian flows management and security systems (waiting zones and retail), and the integration of data.