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The Oriente Station Felt Like a Phalanstery

The Santiago Calatrava-designed modern train station, Oriente was opened for the Expo '98, when the Parque das Naçoes was also built.
I've found the area interesting, but much of the station felt like a grey suffocating concrete phalanstery.

Back from Caparica Beach, preparing to travel to Porto, I arrived at Lisbon's imposing Oriente Station.

Following the ascent from the metro station, I've found myself in the middle of a grey minimalist concrete complex.

First, after the exit from the metro station, I found myself in a long and wide grey concrete tunnel. Uncovered concrete walls - not painted, not covered by anything at all, not even advertisements.

Grim.

I didn't like at all being in the middle of a seemingly (but in fact purposely) unfinished naked concrete complex.

Hard, cold, imposing, grey... no life, just the visual force of the heavy grey construction all around

It felt like a utopian gulag complex, truly Orwellian. Soul-less. Down there, at least.

I suppose this is how a utopian phalanstery would look and feel like. Some sci-fi movies depicted such structures, but are we there already?

The tunnel leading out was really ugly...

We, the people were like ants crawling in a concrete maze. As if we were lost in a huge dry sewage canal.

It felt a bit overdone, like a monstrous catacomb built for slaves who work under the ground.

Only as I exited did I see the nicer part of the building...

It reminded me of the Athens Olympic Park and the Valencian City of Arts and Sciences.

If you look at the arches, you'll pretty much recognize the shapes that constitute Calatrava's obsession.

The upper section was dominated by the colour white and it felt more open. So, by paradox - it was uplifting to get out of the ugly concrete abyss that was down there...

With 75 million people passing through each year, Oriente is one of the World's busiest train station.

Although, to me it didn't feel busy that morning. Only 8 lines and not many people moving around.

I checked out the nearby Vasco da Gama Shopping Centre to spend my remaining time, after having already bought my ticket to Porto.

I picked the Alpha high speed train - one could say it's the Portuguese equivalent of the Japanese Shinkansen. But Shinkansen would be too much said...
The Alpha is similar to the French TGV, rather, ... or the Italian Frecciarossa, ... or the German ICE...

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