When you arrive at the Atocha station, you disappear. Take out your transportation card, pass the lathe and start the game. The high gray concrete ceiling invites you not to stay long in this somewhat hostile space. And signs, arrows and directions remind you what to do: find your platform, sit in your seat, don't attract too much attention. His present —here and now— is limited to the minutes he has left to reach his destination, where he will once again be a person.. Atocha does not recognize him, nor is it necessary.

However, travelers seem to be determined to give vitality to a space that does not lend itself to it. The Atocha station is the perfect example of the constant confrontation between the concepts of place and non-place. All this obsessed the young sociologist from the Complutense University of Madrid, Daniel López, who decided to start an academic investigation to understand how we relate to each other in this emblematic building in Madrid.. He raised a hypothesis, organized his methodology and spent 30 hours in Atocha observing what the hell people were doing. “We have the need to build places,” he explained to this newspaper inside the interchange. A place, anthropologically speaking, is where one is.

His conclusion was blunt: Atocha is a constant struggle between these concepts. A confrontation between the place and the non-place that will vary depending on who are the feet walking the gray corridors. In Atocha, the writer Almudena Grandes is honored —who used her as a stage in several of her novels— and there are those who do not have the remotest idea where they are because they are foreign tourists.

It is August 9, 2023. At around 10:30 in the morning, Rodrigo, 18, waits with his suitcases inside the station with his little brother.. He still has four hours until his train leaves. He is originally from Peru and is in Madrid on vacation. The child who accompanies him rests on the ground: the absence of benches encourages the passerby to move constantly from one side to the other. For this reason, the mother of both has gone out to look for a restaurant to eat on a terrace and spend time: “I have not spoken to anyone, the truth is. Here everyone makes their life”, he points out while moving his luggage. His assessment of the space is that “it is very beautiful on the outside”.

In Atocha, everything goes fast. There are suitcases, rush and fear of missing the train. And very few who dare to break that pre-established contract between all the users who do not know each other: the one who shouts, the one who does not pay the ticket or the one who finds himself in need of asking for alms.. They differ from the mass, although space is constantly reminding them that this is not how things work.

López's theory of confrontation, which in his academic article he called The Terminal Effect, is confirmed with the latest measure announced in relation to the remodeling tasks of the station. The Government gave the green light to the extension last June. The competent administrations are already working on this ambitious project. López's investigation was carried out before this news, but the conclusions are in the same line. “Adif has already mobilized some 650 million euros. Thus, Puerta de Atocha-Almudena Grandes will continue to be a strategic node of the Spanish railway network and its urban environment due to its magnitude, its location in the heart of Madrid and its ability to generate social, economic and cultural activity in the city”, say company sources.

Part of this transformation of the station will entail the “integration” of the tribute monument to the victims of 11-M. Emphasizing and giving more relevance to the memory of the 2004 tragedy emphasizes the concept of history and identity, both characteristic of places. “But Atocha is just a train station!”, as Augé would say in 1992, also taking into account that his study was based mainly on metro stations and airports. But this is not so. Furthermore, 11-M is the ideal example to explain that places should not be idealized either. There are two main venues for each type of traveler. The Express, for those in a hurry. La Pausa, for those who have to wait a few hours for their next trip. And meanwhile, several people sitting on a sculpture that wasn't designed for that. “With that gesture, they build the place. In the end, we tend to want to be in places where we are.” Basically, if there are no benches and there is a need to sit, they make them up. The case of the famous premium bathrooms is just the opposite: it was a space for cruising — sporadic sexual encounters — where relationships were generated. And it was cut to the chase with an automatic payment system without reviewers.

“There is life here,” explains María Ángeles. Immediately afterwards, she takes a photograph of her husband Claudio José in front of the tribute of Almudena Grandes. This is located in front of the famous greenhouse, an emblematic place that characterizes the station. “We are from Ciudad Real and at that stop there is nothing. In Atocha it is very hot, but there is movement, a lot of people, restaurants and this [he says pointing to the monument]. And you can't help but compare it with Chamartín, which connects the north node of Madrid. He describes it as a much darker space, nothing to do with the vitality that the South station gives off. If throughout this text you perceived that non-places were negative and places positive, eliminate that idea from your head. “There are travelers who are tired of working all day and enjoy going on the train, being anonymous and not having to talk to anyone,” explains the expert.. Everything will depend on the user's own experience in their relationship with the space.. That is why there are those who have built a place from the Atocha station, like the workers.

Workers

Talking with colleagues, taking a break to eat, looking for a hiding place in which to have a cigarette, laughing or wanting to finish the shift. The workers at the Atocha station are the ones who perceive the space the most as a place. “The interesting thing is the security guards,” López continues as he walks up to the entrance turnstiles. There are some inspectors sitting there making sure that no one crosses without paying. And they are available to anyone who has any questions about how to get to their destination. “They are homogenizing agents,” he explains.

Paradoxically, these workers are in charge of making sure that nobody goes too far. They do not identify themselves. “They explained to me that their worst days were on weekends”, when travelers go to the train to get to a place of leisure and not to work, go. However, they always raise their hands with those who spend hours lying on the ground. This Wednesday the station was full of travelers doing time in places not enabled for it and the agents barely flinched.

And it is here where most life occurs.

“From me to you!” says a waiter at the La Pausa bar as he hands María José, another restaurant employee, a tray of ham and cheese croissants. “Thank you so much!” she says.. This 63-year-old woman has been working at the Chamartín and Atocha stations for more than 40 years. “There are unlucky customers and lovely people…. but you don't see them again, this is incidental”, he explains. and more in summer. During the winter, the client goes straight to work. In summer, to a vacation destination. The only thing that does not disappear in these months is the hustle and bustle. “Here it is always full, always, always.”