Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA station

In 1971 a simple halt opened on the Rhijnspoorweg, between Amsterdam and Utrecht, with wooden platforms. Five years later a new station, Amsterdam Bijlmer, was built east of the first one, with four tracks: two for trains and two for the metro, which opened a year afterwards.

When the Amsterdam ArenA opened in August 1996, the station grew steadily busier. During matches, and above all afterwards, it had to be closed: when crowds left, dangerous situations arose on packed platforms while intercity trains went through at 140 km/h. A third station was therefore built to receive the football crowds; work on site, which began in 2001, was complicated because trains and metros kept running, and a renovated bus station was added in 2006.

ProRail was the client. The Grimshaw practice designed the station with Arcadis, its associate architect; the Dutch association of architects, the BNA, credits Jan van Belkum for Arcadis and Neven Sidor for Grimshaw as the architects.

Princess Máxima officially opened the station on 17 November 2007. On 24 April 2008 the BNA named it Building of the Year 2008, its jury declaring itself "extraordinarily impressed by the roof which, with its peerless dynamism, its admission of light and its sense of space, forms the station in a gesture as generous as it is breathtaking". The same year it was on the shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize.

The station stands on a two-level concrete viaduct, 325 m long, that spans a boulevard 70 m wide. Running diagonally, the boulevard links the eastern and western districts, previously isolated from each other; the viaduct's two-level structure lets the eye pass through to the boulevard and the concourse below. Eight tracks run above, two of them for the metro.

The roof crowns the station. It covers 200 m of the central stretch of tracks and platforms, expresses the drive of high-speed travel and follows the diagonal of the boulevard; seen from the boulevard, it forms the public face of the project. It is made of four identical segments, each a vault over one group of tracks: trains enter at the low end, run under the tall central volume and leave through the low opening at the other end. Each segment rests on four raking tubular steel A-frames, with a stabilising element at the south end; at both ends the roof projects 18 m beyond the last support. A broad split stresses the direction of the boulevard and the way into the main hall. Glazing covers the platforms and a solid roof covers the tracks, and at night perforated metal fins diffuse the light that filters through the opening at the top of each vault.

Long voids cut into the platforms let daylight flood the pedestrian areas and the bus station below. They also create a line of sight between the platform level and the ground, which helps people find their way around the station.

A station for trains and the metro, it is also a major interchange between the metro, buses and the national rail network. Its extra-wide platforms and large escalators make it possible to deal quickly with large groups of travellers, whether football supporters heading for the Johan Cruijff ArenA or audiences at AFAS Live and the Ziggo Dome, all of which the station serves. It is also a neighbourhood station, where residents walk down the stairs to the market or the metro.

From the ticket hall, escalators, stairs and glazed lifts lead up to the raised platforms; the bus station adjoins the ticket hall.