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Next Station: Igelbäcken Nature Reserve

Erik Eckersten, a student at the SLU wrote Next station: Igelbäcken nature reserve[a], subtitled Design of an abandoned subway station into an entrance to a nature reserve. I find it a bold transformation of the now unfinished and abandoned subway stop.

Overall I think he's done a fantastic job. Instead of transforming the whole station into something you'd expect in an urban area, he let the surrounding nature invade it, with grass beyond the south end of the platform, and letting the trees real close so that the north station exit takes you straight into the woods. If there's anything to complain about it's the south exit, where he's just added a metal spiral staircase. I think maybe a zig-zaggging ramp or something with more capacity would be better; especially since the area is already designated for utility use, with it being how you access the transformer station under the south end of the station. This is nitpicking, though. I think this is an excellent and bold proposal. Will it ever happen? We can but hope.

The plan was to remove some ceiling plates and simply have the platform open to the sky. The north entrance would be a ramp leading right into the woods from the platform, with no ticket hall or anything above ground (except for a fence to keep people from falling down the hole). I think the only thing I noted is that there is no elevator, but with the ramp being gentle enough that might not be needed.

The platform itself would be left in close to its current unfinished state, with some inscriptions on the walls similar to the artwork in Östermalmstorg subway station[b].

The south entrance is transformed into a small park with a path going from the platform to a spiral staircase that takes you to ground level. I recommend you read the whole work, as it has many illustrations. And to close off, some of my own photos from Kymlinge: