Project Information
Project: Golshahr Metro Station
Location: Golshahr District, Karaj, Iran
Client: Tehran and Suburbs Railway Company (Metro)
Lead architect: Farzad Rouzbeh
Architecture associates: Siamak Kalhori, Reza Rahimian, Omid Shaterian, Marjan Rezvani, Hoda Alavi Tabari, Niloufar Aleiha, Sourena Sateri
Structure: Farhang Ghajar
Structural associates: Jalal Hejazi, Alireza Yekkalam, Mohammad Babak Rajaee, Seyyed Ebrahim Ashrafi, Bahram Maleki, Reza Anamaghi, Sasan Sayyah
Electrical: Mohammad Saeed Atigh
Mechanical: Farzin Fardanesh
Contractor: Tehran Armeh Company
Construction period: 2002–2004 (1381–1383 SH)
Built area: 16,000 sqm
Site area: 7 hectares
Golshahr Metro Station is located in the Golshahr district in the west of Karaj, near Mehrshahr. This above-ground station serves as the terminal of Tehran–Karaj Metro Line One, accessible from two sides via the Tehran–Karaj Highway and Moazen Molayeri Boulevard in Golshahr township. The station has been designed on two levels: the first level comprises the ticket hall, technical rooms, and commercial spaces, while the second level contains the island-type platform and under-platform service areas.
The design responds to the challenge of creating a civic landmark at the edge of a rapidly expanding satellite city. The station's most striking feature is its series of monumental parabolic concrete arches that span the main entrance, framing the two-story interior and establishing a bold silhouette visible from the approaching highway. These structural arches serve both as the primary load-bearing system for the elevated platform canopy and as an iconic gateway marking the threshold between the urban landscape and the transit infrastructure below.
Exterior
The exterior composition assembles a vocabulary of exposed concrete volumes, angular forms, and expansive glass curtain walls. A tall glass-fronted tower rises sharply to a pointed apex, housing the main staircase and flooding the interior with natural light. The warm ochre-toned cladding panels on the upper portions contrast with the raw concrete of the structural walls, while a series of clerestory windows running along the roofline illuminate the platform level from above.
Interior
Inside, the station unfolds as a sequence of generous, light-filled volumes. The ticket hall on the ground level features a coffered concrete ceiling and open sightlines to the mezzanine above. Steel-framed staircases and escalators connect the two levels, their exposed structural members contributing to an industrial aesthetic softened by the abundant natural light entering through the glass curtain walls and the arched canopy overhead. At the platform level, the soaring steel-and-glass canopy with its parabolic arches creates a dramatic vaulted space, merging structural engineering with architectural expression.
