Canary Wharf JLE station

The Jubilee Line Extension project gave London eleven excellent, architect designed stations (heavily assisted by a JLE team that receives less credit than it deserves). Foster’s grassed-over Canary Wharf station design owes something to its precedent at Bilbao and a bit to Stansted as well, but this one is much larger in scale and capacity (it is intended to serve up to 40,000 people per hour, served by twenty escalators — more traffic than Oxford Circus). Underground, it is a huge hall (280m long by 32 m wide and 24 m deep; about as long as the Canary tower is tall), typologically similar to that designed by Will Alsop adjacent to the Millennium Dome, but bigger. Much bigger. Above ground, it manifests as a double-curved glass canopy that belongs to a family of such forms the Foster team adapts to a variety of projects at a variety of scales (e. g. the air museum at Duxford) — like a swollen airplane cockpit bubble. Below ground is veritably Piranesian: gigantic forms, given flow, elegance and the scale of a Italian fascist train station! It’s superb. The aim (characteristically) has been simplicity and clarity, avoiding a clutter of signage and producing a calm ambience enhanced by the sweeping curves of the concrete structure. Lighting has been an important feature of the design and the entry bubbles scoops enable daylight to penetrate the interiors and draw travellers out into Canary. Station servicing is via concealed gangways, entirely behind the scenes. Lighting is by Claude and Danielle Engle. The total area is about 31,500 sq. m.