CHANGE THE STATION

What if walking along a subway platform felt like walking through a radio, with different “stations” playing at each interval? Imagine people standing on the same subway platform but each of them listening to a music genre of their preference, all without the use of an earphone.

Change the Station aims to transform run-of-the-mill subway platforms into vibrant and engaging public places through innovative experiential design and sensory stimulation. Indeed, this projects leverages hypersonic technology to create a dynamic series of targeted sound experiences along the length of a subway platform.

The use of hypersonic speakers will allow us to offer a wide variety of high-quality sound experiences in specific portions of the platform by creating ‘sound bubbles’ without having to construct physical walls. This means that users may choose to stand inside a sound bubble, be it jazz, classical or R&B, or outside of it to partake in a more traditional transit experience. Each sound bubble will invite users to explore this one-of-a-kind sensory experience. Programmable LED wall panels will form a backdrop for each sound bubble, representing the waves of the music currently playing.

The hypersonic speakers will be installed on the ceiling of the platform, safely out of reach of users, and will project sound in an approximately four by four foot area directly below. Two to three different users will be able to enjoy any given “station” along the platform.

IMPLEMENTATION

We look forward to working with the City and its transit agency to identify an underground subway station that could both accommodate and benefit from this sort of innovative design. While the design’s footprint is relatively small, we believe that it would be advantageous to install the design on a platform with ample circulation space to ensure user safety and enjoyment. This would allow transit users to actively engage with the LED wall and allow it to be seen from a distance.

This design could be easily adapted to stations and be implemented at a variety of different scales. Ideally, we would like to treat this project as a beta for a larger-scale version that could be used to transform an entire platform or station.

We look forward to working with the city to develop a set of design guidelines that will allow this project to be successfully implemented without compromising the safety or efficiency of the transit system.

TEAM

Sae Kim, Director // Joon Choe, Designer // Julia McElhinney, Strategist and Project Manager