Vault & Construction | Introduction

"The design of a subway station starts with the structural design of the shell and ends with the artificial light reflecting from ceilings, walls and platforms." [Christoph, p.11]

Rolf Schirmer wrote in Christoph Hackelsberger's book "Subway Architecture in Munich", concerning the design of the subway stations that lie underneath a street or building. It prompts me to start my research on the structural system and construction of underground stations.

The Metro stations in Washington DC employed vault design for the underground stations. The concrete vault provided a vast column-less space for the platform and have become a signature of the Metro system.

In this series of post "Vault and Construction", I will document different construction methods of the subway stations, and explore the design of the vault.



Cast-in-place concrete vault of Metro station