Design & Culture
UITP Award Winner

Modern lighting design makes metro stations more attractive

VBK - Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe GmbH

  • Design & Culture
  • Metro
Where
Germany
when
2021
Elevator pitch
Outstanding architectural design with effect-oriented lighting design at metro stations creates a positive aesthetic user experience. With a modern feeling in the style of the new era, this will increase the attractiveness of public transport.
Project description

Target 1

To make citizens use the metro with a good feeling of safety and a modern positive way of thinking about public transport.

Target 2

To make the metro station, as a point of access to public transport, an attractive place to stay with a positive aesthetic experience of use. This should increase the passenger’s self-esteem and enhance the value of the mobility service offered there.

The problem

How can metro stations be designed so that they illustrate the positive effect of public transport by being bright, friendly, functional, clear, lovable, stress-reducing, and modern?

Innovative features

Building on the colour homogeneity of the acoustically effective surfaces, the most innovative design element of central importance is the lighting concept of the metro stops.

Based on the necessary suspensions of the electrical overhead lines, a steel cable construction runs freely through the space. Depending on the axis of vision of the passengers, the lights appear like subtly arranged notes on the staves of a very harmonious symphony. This modern basic concept of underground stations with the innovative lighting design and the lights radiating in all directions and the filigree overhead line network can be adapted worldwide.

Harmonious and beautiful

The tunnel is designed by the Munich architectural office “allmannwappner”. The bright underground stations and their surrounding harmonious joint patterns, as well as the very beautiful lighting concept designed as an essential design element by the lighting designer Ingo Maurer, is perceived as absolutely successful by the visitors of the underground stations.

The beautiful and modern effect of the underground stations has even led to Karlsruhe citizens showing off the stops to their relatives visiting from out of town as a sensation like a tourist attraction. In the process, the people of Karlsruhe themselves are always amazed by the feeling of the space, even after many visits.