A Translation of Faaborg Train Station

Methodology and positioning
Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s 1923 essay “The Task of the Translator,” which reflects on the purpose and role of translating a literary work, spatial transformation is understood as an act of translation using an As Found approach. The term As Found emerged in 1950s England through the work of the architect duo The Smithsons. Their concern for everyday life, where many functions and meanings intertwine, was a reaction to the universal tendency of post-war modernism, which often led to replacing existing environments with abstract ideas.

Through careful analysis of the building’s character and context, alongside anthropological and historical studies, the project investigates how social and spatial qualities already present within the site can be strengthened and utilised in a proposal for transformation.

Site introduction
Faaborg Train Station was designed by N.P.C. Holsøe and built in 1882 as part of Denmark’s industrialisation. The building is a typical example of a Danish market-town station built in a historicist style. Drawing on references to the Romanesque style, the robust construction, symmetrical order, and exposed brick facade with profiled detailing clothed the new technologies of speed and time in a sense of familiarity, solidity, and quality. It served both passengers and freight until 1962, when rail traffic declined. Today, the building stands empty without use, located between the town centre and the waterfront.

The area around the building is planned by Faaborg Municipality to be developed into a new residential neighbourhood. However, due to the building’s central location and its former role as a public train station, it holds an inherent spatial and social potential that we think would be a loss to overlook.

Context and programme strategy
We have developed the programme strategy based upon a reading of the site and its context, including anthropological fieldwork, urban life studies, municipal development plans, and an analysis of broader political tendencies affecting small Danish towns. Thereby, the proposal contributes to Faaborg Municipality's ambition to strengthen the connection between town and harbour. We acknowledge the need for small towns to invest in the experience economy, but question how this can be achieved while strengthening local identity and community life.

Tiled floor
The floor is designed as a contemporary translation of the tiled surfaces historically found in nineteenth-century railway architecture across the Scandinavian countries, as well as in other civic buildings of the period. Drawing on principles such as the square grid, border, zoning, and checkerboard pattern, the flooring establishes continuity throughout the building while differentiating between functions and spatial atmospheres. The floor's colour scheme acts both as a unifying surface and as a tool for spatial organisation. A dialogue between interior and exterior is established through the continuation of bonding principles.

Wall panel system
Creating a low horizontal line, the panel establishes a coherent spatial language while adding both robustness and intimacy to the interior.

The design consists of four elements: a wall panel, a bench, a table, and a bar. Together, they provide different ways of inhabiting the space and support the building’s transitional character.

Drawing on references from the building’s historicist architecture the panel’s details are inspired by linenfold panels, traditional recessed panels, and a window profile from the historicist period. The shape of the moulding is also seen in the bench bracket. It is the negative shape of the profile, creating continuity and variation within the same theme. A green colour is reintroduced on the windows and doors and introduced to the panel, creating a connection between the interior and exterior of the building.

Together, the tiled floor and panel system create a material dialogue between standardisation and specificity. They continue the building’s inherent tension between the robust and the refined, the mass-produced and the handcrafted, while highlighting transitions and extending the relationship between interior and exterior.

Through spatial and material considerations, our proposal builds on pre-existing historical and anthropological qualities and carries forward a renewed civic life in the train station.