Stockholm – unmissable stations

A colleague sent me a text a few days ago, complaining of the similarity of the Elizabeth line station platforms that nearly caused her to miss her stop.

It is some 20 years ago now when I was asked by Canary Wharf to design the Crossrail station at Canary Wharf.  While it took some years, the benefits of a private client meant that it was well underway and nigh-on complete before Crossrail had decided what they wanted in all the other stations.  The results of most of our effort is rightly out of sight, all that technical weaving and spatial interlocking within the smallest sensible box that looks anything but complicated to the passenger, took years of my life. And towards the end of the design period, before Crossrail had started to consider what they wanted their stations to look like, and before the first Giken piles were sunk, we were asked to do a station ambience exercise that reflected the quality, look and feel of Canary Wharf, without the cost. And I think we did a pretty good job, and so did Canary Wharf, and we left it at that. And then we left it to the builders, and the corporate whitewash that followed.

I was reminded of our exercise in Stockholm last week when, as I do, I travelled the metro in search of the art washed platforms that adorn the red and blue lines that I had long admired, secretly plagiarised whenever possible, yet had never seen in their undulating sprayed concrete and raw granite flesh.

My colleague would not be confused by sameness here.

Of course, being art, not every station will be everyone’s glass of aquavit, but at least their individual uniqueness starts a conversation, one that is still entered into, 50 years after their completion, by a constant stream of pointing snapping travellers, many with that distinct appearance of mature design students.
 
I can’t help but wonder that come 2072, when they too are 50 years in the tooth, the Elizabeth line platforms will look quite so engaging, and be quite so admired and debated, particularly when you miss your station once again.