Comment by RLN | Hacker News Reader

Comment by RLN | Hacker News Reader

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Those pictures really looked a lot like the newer stations such as Canada Water to me. All concrete, glass and cold lighting. Undoubtedly they work and are functional but we end up with these cold, cavernous halls which serve just to get you out of them as quickly as possible. The Underground I love is the one that feels a bit lived in and isn't clinically perfect. I like that different stations can bring different eras and have a completely different feel to them. Such as Tottenham Court Road [1] with its lovely mosaics. Now it's just a bit more bland. All over the Underground is a lot of history and design that was probably never meant to last over 100 years [2] but it did. I don't think these new designs are going to be pretty in 100 years.

Maybe I'm harking for a design philosophy that never really existed. And I like the old District line trains so what do I know!

[1] http://now-here-this.timeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/...

[2] http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dILlxEDvx20/UkwfeIhKOyI/AAAAAAAAAu...

I particularly like the new Westminster station --- you get off the train, leave the platform, and you're at the bottom of this huge vertical space, full of support girders and zigzagging diagonal escalators. You ascend through this, with new views becoming visible at every turn, and eventually the ceiling comes into view overhead, looming over you before the escalator passes through it...

It reminded me intensely of some of the Portal 2 levels.

I'm not sure this will reach an audience here, but both Canada Water and Westminster were commissioned by Roland Paoletti as part of the Jubilee Line Extension. Overall, I think it's a success (a different architect was chosen for each station).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10460471/Roland-P...

As someone who doesn't remember the '80s, Tottenham Court Road's mosaics look ugly already. I'd lay money that in 100 years the new designs will look better than them. The Jubilee Line extension stations are very elegant in my view - functional design has a beauty all of its own, and clean and modern is a good look for a transport system (A station shouldn't look lived in, that's not what it's for) - particularly one that serves Canary Wharf where it fits in with the broader æsthetic. At the same time the concrete and arches have just enough character to be interesting. It's a little bland, but for something that so many people have little choice about using, inoffensive is better than avant-garde. (Compare /u/cstross' notion of the "beige dictatorship").

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