Real village stop

The poor condition of the brick bus stop shelter for local lines had long been crying out for maintenance, construction activity or even transformation. Covered in posters and witness to all sorts of activities, it did not give the impression of a safe and welcoming place to wait for a connection. Despite the declining number of daily bus lines and passengers, public transport still has undeniable advantages and so the idea came about to renovate the stop and cultivate rural public transport, at least to a small extent. The starting point: to try to make the stop a pleasant place, for the wider public as well as for passengers. To let go of inflexible dogma around what is and is not a bus stop and it should or shouldn’t be used for. To think of a bus stop in a broader sense, as a public space, not only a place where we’re forced to wait impatiently. Delayed connection? Never mind. I’m not going anywhere today, actually… The proposal: The brick structure resembles a simple, archetypal room: four walls, a floor, a ceiling, a door and a window. A living room. A parlour. We extracted the attributes of these village spaces and applied them to the bus stop to the greatest extent possible, including equipment and furnishings. The result is something between a living room, an entrance hall and a transport building. A place to drink a morning coffee from a thermos on the way to work, or enjoy an uneaten school snack. A place to do homework, to play chess, to pick up a book and put it down again. A place to rest, fix your hair and move on. We subsequently named this project a Real Village Stop. Finally, a safe, refined, unpretentious and honest space in a rural setting. The space offers shelter from wind and rain. During the day, the sun shines in and fresh air flows through, while, in the evening, artificial lighting creates a safe and atmospheric environment.