“My goal was to create a building that reflects the new stations potential significance as a high speed inter-urban link between Europe's cities. I imagined a building without facades with a soaring roof above offering protection from the elements (particularly the ever present rain of the Belgian Winter).

This could maintain the views through and of the station. The vaulted shape was a natural development of this vision while the soft (perhaps feminine) undulating curve of the roof was selected to mimic the graceful rise and fall of the Cointe hills beyond.

I felt that there was no better way to celebrate the technological achievement of the TGV trains than to expose the working platforms and the dynamism of the moving ensemble of passengers and trains.”

Santiago Calatrava