“Attention passengers, we are now approaching - the better transport infrastructure.”
A continous work of evaluating existing railway stations or transport hubs around the world, identify the social, cultural, and design approaches.
MAPPING AND ANALIZING STATIONS AROUND THE WORLD
Taipei Main Station is the most complex transport hub in Taiwan, with 6 rail-base lines and more modes of transport operating within the site
The task of designing railway stations has long troubled authorities and metro operation companies, for a station often possesses an awkward layout and multiple layers. Railway routes have deep connections with the long term urban planning, due to the building and operating cost, and the complex science and machinery nature for such transportation type.
Another aspect is to plan a new railway line within an existing urban fabric, which is even more challenging, for trainstocks and rail have a curvature limit, forcing routes to take mild turns while threading through the city streets. Also the avaliable sites for station constructions are not easy to seek, and this sometimes causes unnecessary detours.
If we strip the architectural elements, distort the spatial accuracy, and exaggerate the circulations; we get a practical station directory
In the world of modern wayfinding, standard architectural presentations are still the primary ways to illustrate space: plans, sections and 3D drawings will normally fulfill the task.
However, when dealing with more complicated stations with multiple railway lines, with platform crossing at weird angles, or with space spanning huge amount of layers, all kinds of visual become complementary, cross-referencing between 2D or 3D drawings will be necessary.