Whilst buildings are, in principle, designed for rather static occupiers, metro stations are underground environments accommodating people in motion, commuters in transit in an efficient and effective manner since 1893, when the oldest metro system started its operations in London. Fast forward to present day, there are now about 180 underground networks around the globe taking people reliably from place to place, beating records of depth, length and speed and fascinating us with a creative design of network maps.
So how are the stations really designed? Each station has its own distinctiveness, owing to the surroundings, therefore a lot of thought is needed to consider all the elements that create each station’s identity. From our perspective, the sustainability element of a development is just as important as it’s uniqueness.
The Doha Metro has four lines, running mostly underground and serving both capital and the suburbia, built just in time for the World Cup 2022. On this project we were appointed to deliver a peer review of the MEP design and acted as a sustainability consultants with a dedicated in-house LEED Accredited Professional and a GSAS Qualified Green Professional assigned to the scheme and provide energy modelling in accordance with ASHRAE methods to support the LEED accreditation process. We worked on two stations: the 35,000 sq m Education City Station and the 75,000 sq m Msheireb Station, with both stations characterised by a stone roofs reflecting the sand dunes of the surrounding desert.
The Msheireb Station, located in the centre of Doha city, is the largest in the hub of the Metro network, being the major interchange station, and it features a mezzanine level, a double height concourse level and two platform levels. A major efforts have been undertaken by our sustainability team, including extensive modelling of wind, light and noise as well as relocation of all trees from the contaminated brown site to local nurseries to meet the environmental objectives for the project.
