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The tube stations of the future are here! Well, sort of. TfL has released the blueprints for how tube stations might look in the future – and the overarching theme seems to be blue. The plans have been developed by architect firm Studio Egret West, which has produced a 'design idiom' – a guide for building new stations and repairing old ones.
The guide includes nine principles, which range from the practical – 'prioritise comfort for staff and customers' – to the ambitious – 'delight and surprise'. We're pretty sure no-one has ever felt delighted at the prospect of being crammed in like sardines on the sweaty Central line, and any surprises are usually of the unpleasant variety when you're forced to take an unexpected replacement bus service trip thanks to engineering works. But another principle is to 'plan for the future', so maybe replacement bus services will one day be a thing of the past. We can dream, right?
See more of the designs:
The designs will be on show at Platform, 1 Joan Street, SE1. Open for public viewings on the second Friday and Saturday of each month from January to March 2016, 11am–7pm.
In other tube news, Tottenham Court Road has a swanky new entrance and the Central line re-opens on Monday.