Senior Lighting Designers Cristoph Gisel and Kevin Womack from the New York office of the world-famous engineering firm, Arup, were invited and talked about the importance of lighting designs for mass transit, while introducing their subway projects in New York, Copenhagen, Paris, and Berlin.

The session began with the introduction of the social impacts of lighting designs for mass transit. By 2030, some 70% of the world population is expected to be concentrated in urban areas, where mass transit is most used. They pointed out that investments in mass transit have a significant spin-off effect on the economy.
In particular, since train stations are often located at the center of cities, unlike airports, they are more familiar for workers and residents in cities and have a greater impact. Recently, sales of commercial facilities directly connected to stations have exceeded those of street-level stores for ten consecutive terms. This also indicates the increased importance of lighting designs for mass transit.

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Copenhagen Cityringen © Arup

In addition, they emphasize on providing joy to users with lighting design when they work on mass transit projects, such as subways and trains. Take commuting as an example. It may not be possible to make every experience from home to work filled with joy or excitement. However, they think that creating occasional fun moments can improve the overall quality of commuting. Specifically, joyful experiences at a destination station, such as a terminal station, can reset previous unpleasant experiences during travel and refresh people’s minds, enabling people to begin a good day.

Copenhagen Cityringen © Arup

Fulton Center which officially opened in New York City in November 2014 is a good example of this experience. With more than ten subway lines, Fulton Center is a major subway station located in downtown Manhattan near Wall Street. In this project, Arup’s design team, in collaboration with artist James Carpenter and the architect team from Grimshaw Architects, designed a dome-shaped skylight at the top of a massive atrium that directs natural light to the deep underground part of the station. They said this enabled commuters in the station to experience the moment like a happy ending of a movie every day.

【Date & Time】14:15‒15:15, March 7, 2019
【Venue】Room 101, 1F, Conference Tower, Tokyo Big Sight
【Speaker】Cristoph Gisel, Senior Designer, Arup’s New York office
Kevin Womack, Senior Designer, Arup’s New York office
【Organizers】IALD Japan, JLMA, Nikkei Inc.

Profile

Kevin Womack

Kevin broad education in engineering and design provide him with the insight to develop ideas that compliment creative and technical solutions, key elements in the lighting experience. Collaboration, inspiration outside of the lighting field such as art, travel, innovation and technology and people embodies his ‘Total Design” approach.

Christoph Gisel

Christoph Gisel is a Senior Lighting Designer in Arup’s New York office.
His focus in his work is the creation of inviting and inspiring environments; he is a nighttime designer who appreciates public spaces as the meeting point for everyone. Lighting for urban infrastructure such as parks and transit is one of his professional passions.