Quantum Strider

PLUSS architects (Arhitektuuribüroo PLUSS) noticed one factor, which often remains in the background, when talking about planning on the scale of urban transport and city regions. That factor is time. The current dominant factor, that has strongly influenced the planning visions of the countries and capitals around the Baltic Sea, has so far been the factor of distance.

The architects believe, that the Rail Baltica project, which is the biggest and most influential strategic project of the current and forthcoming decades, provides the ideal impulse for the time factor to reveal its hidden potential. It is time to start getting used to a situation where unconnected space becomes an entirety through, so far unfamiliar, superfast transport connections. These transport connections have the potential to create new opportunities for the people who use them while profiting from the new spatial situations.

The Rail Baltica high-speed railway will be built between 2018 and 2019 and connect the three Baltic states to condense the timespace network of western European capitals. PLUSS Architects had the honor of winning the architectural competition of one of the two terminal buildings in Estonia (competition entry “Water Strider”). In addition to designing an infrastructurally efficient station for the Rail Baltica route, we are also interested in the new timespace effect it has on the Baltic region in general.