The each day commute may be one of the vital miserable components of the nine-to-five routine – particularly in these darkish winter months, once you enter a practice or metro station at daybreak and exit at nightfall.
However your expertise is likely to be completely uplifting in the event you’re lucky sufficient to journey by means of certainly one of six stations topped as probably the most lovely on the earth by the distinguished Prix Versailles.
It’s a extremely coveted international structure and design award, that yearly honours excellent buildings in a variety of sectors various from eating places, museums or airports. In collaboration with UNESCO, the prize goals to rejoice initiatives with architectural excellence by means of innovation, sustainability, and good integration with their environment.
Three stations from the 2025 Record may also subsequent month obtain the additional distinction of a World Title – Prix Versailles, Inside or Exterior.
So who’re this 12 months’s winners? Selecting from 1000’s of stations throughout the globe, the Prix Versailles World Ceremony has rewarded magnificence and design, with an obvious penchant in the direction of modernity.
The magnificent seven
Gadigal Station, Sydney, Australia
We begin by going underground at Gadigal Station in Sydney, Australia – town’s first metro! The sweetness hits you immediately with an enormous piece of artwork proper on the entrance, a vivid tile mosaic impressed by the early railway tunnels.
Gadigal Station,Sydney, Australia – Credit score: Aaron Hargreaves/Prix Versailles 2025
It additionally options cool, futuristic rows of strobe lights lining the wall. And the identify, ‘Gadigal’, is similar because the Aboriginal individuals who initially owned the land, so the station is supposed to honour town’s historical past too. Labelled as “absolute modernity” within the Prize’s official assertion, the station was designed by Foster + Companions in collaboration with Cox Structure.
Baiyun Station, Guangzhou, China
Baiyun Station, Guangzhou, China – Credit score: Yang Min
Regardless of being rooted beneath the bustling enterprise district, the designers at Nikken Sekkei remodeled what may have been empty airspace right into a vibrant, interconnected hub of retailers and workplaces. There’s a round walkway lined with greenery, which creates the texture of a three-dimensional park.
Baiyun Station, Guangzhou, China – Credit score: Yang Min/Prix Versailles 2025
A multi-storey, round pedestrian walkway connects the railway platforms to the encircling business and workplace areas, however greater than that, it’s interwoven with gardens to create a three-dimensional city park that irrigates and unites the area people.
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
KAFD station, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Credit score: Hufton + Crow/Prix Versailles 2025
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, secured not one however two locations on this 12 months’s checklist. The primary is the KAFD Station, designed by the legendary Zaha Hadid Architects, which mixes futuristic design with nature-inspired kinds.
KAFD Station, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Credit score: Hufton + Crow/Prix Versailles
On the aesthetic aspect, it has fluid, wave-like roof meant to reference desert dunes. On the sensible aspect, it serves as a key hub on the earth’s longest driverless transport system, making it futurism in full pressure.
The second station to make the shortlist is Qasr Al Hokm Station. Architectural agency Snøhetta designed an inverted conical cover that works like a periscope to mirror metropolis motion and lightweight into the station under. Inside, the area is lined with adobe, a nod to the native Najdi architectural traditions, and features a lush underground backyard.
Qasr Al Hokm Station, in Saudi Arabia – Prix Versailles 2025
Qasr Al Hokm Station, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Credit score: Royal Fee for Riyadh Metropolis
Europe’s Most Stunning
In Belgium, Mons Station was singled out due to its lovely design, deliberate by Santiago Calatrava.
Mons Station, Belgium – Credit score: Santiago Calatrava LLC
As is customary for him, the constructing is easy and sweeping with a white metal gallery that appears a bit like a cathedral. It connects the historic centre with rising fashionable districts in a single uninterrupted 165-meter pathway.
Saint-Denis-Pleyel Station
Saint-Denis-Pleyel Station, Paris, France – Credit score: Kengo Kuma & Associates/Éric Garault/Société des grands projets
Final and under no circumstances least on this extraordinarily selective checklist are two stations in France. Saint-Denis-Pleyel Station was designed by architects Kengo Kuma & Associates and has a novel, light-filled area rising 35 meters excessive, with picket surfaces that distinction with the economic norm of metal and concrete.
Saint-Denis-Pleyel, Paris, France – Credit score: Kengo Kuma & Associates/Éric Garault/Société des grands projets
Constructed to bridge three totally different neighbourhoods separated by rail tracks, the station is supposed to function a social connector that may quickly get a collection of Paleolithic-inspired statues to make the challenge a part of a “multi-millennial continuum.”
Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station
Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station, Paris, France – Credit score: Dominique Perrault Structure/Michel Denancé/Société des grands projets
Lastly, there’s Villejuif-Gustave Roussy Station, designed by Dominique Perrault. This station performs with reflections and lightweight, utilizing metallic finishes of varied textures to dazzle commuters in its huge cylindrical atrium. How? Via a 70-meter-wide glass ceiling, that permits air and daylight to plunge proper all the way down to the platforms, 50 meters underground.
