Universal Design Concept In The Subway Station Application

Due to China’s rapid economic development of the past20years, urbanization has outpaced transportation planning and infrastructure making it increasingly difficult for residents to navigate China’s modern cities. To address this problem the government and planners looked at other developed cities for solutions concluding with the construction of subways and light rail through out China’s developing cities. Subways thus became the government’s core solution for urban congestion. However, the subways in many of China’s cities are not designed with the entire population in mind. Most lack suitable design solutions for those who are elderly, handicapped or have difficulty walking or standing.This thesis will use universal design concepts to analyze the Subway systems in modern Chinese metropolises. Universal design was first devised by American Architect Ron Max in the1980’s. It rapidly spread and has become common place in building codes both in the United States and Europe. The goal of universal design is to provide built environments that cater to the entire population whether able bodied or not. This paper will investigate the concept of universal design and how its standards impact space and its usage and how those can then be applied to rapid transit in modern Chinese cities.Universal design divides the population into several groups; healthy people, the elderly, physically disabled, visually impaired, hearing impaired, intellectual disabilities, pregnant women and children. These categories help designers analyze and break down program and special requirements in order to best target these groups and how they will interact and overlap with one another. Through the analysis of passenger flow, the design of the universal design theory applied to the subway station designs. Finally, from the perspective of universal design approach to the subway station design and content of discussion and analysis for the design of subway stations provide some useful design methods and data reference.