Tra patrimonio e innovazione. Il progetto dei flussi per la stazione di Arnhem

The Dutch city of Arnhem has undergone major transformations over the past 20 years that have placed it at the centre of a growing 􀃸 ow of national interest, both economic and social, linked mainly to the population growth of medium-sized centres that make up for the housing shortages of large cities. The railway station redevelopment project, sustained from a forecast of growth in intercity 􀃸 ows between the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, has been developed from 1998 by UNstudio, together with ARUP, Arnhem Municipality, ProRail and NS, and opened to the public in 2015. As one of the largest Dutch rail infrastructure projects of the past twenty years, Arnhem’s development was based on the upcoming opportunity and faith through hosting the Dutch East-High Speed Lines (HSL). Instead, due to the economic crisis, only a few cities bene􀃶 tted by this transformation. Therefore, the design intervention, supported by public and private funding, created the conditions for a recognition of the station within a privileged state of development in the country, triggering over time numerous public and private processes of urban regeneration at varying densities. The new station has thus placed Arnhem, and its 500 protected monuments, within an accessible network, supporting new economic and cultural 􀃸 ows. The Arnhem experience constitutes a signi􀃶 cant attempt to correlate physical and digital infrastructural space, so as to investigate how the matter of capitalisation was triggered in relation to the implementation of railway infrastructure, within a (inter)national economic development framework.