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3.1 State of the art

5.1 Discussion

In the start of the process, we defined the success design criteria, which included enhancing the transition between the two parts of the city, promoting the historical identity of the Railway City by giving identity for the tunnel, and creating a noticeable landmark. Conducting the evaluation validated the design according to the criteria to some degree, but there still is room for discussion. One thing to notice is, that the sampling group of the respondents in the evaluation was rather small, only 6 people, out of which 5 were male. The team could have expanded these interviews to more people with a bigger plurality on age, occupation and gender. There were also some topics, that could have been further studied and considered in the design. One of these topics was the matter of graffiti. The issue of dealing with and preventing graffiti was often discussed, but the implementation of these plans was left unfinished. Talking with the DSB officers during evaluation raised the topic to discussion again, when they raised special concern on maintaining a clean, graffitiless design in the tunnel. Concerning future works, the final design implementation plan is something that would require further experiments and research. Regarding the sound responsive installation, the different types of sounds in the tunnel could have been defined more specific. Also, the fact that the tunnel is highly echoing would probably influence how the sensors should be calibrated and organized. Further testing would have been useful in the process of defining the exact way of interactivity, and design evaluations with test users could have been conducted. Further testing should have also been conducted regarding specific levels of illuminance and how the new lighting would interact with different materials. In the start of the process, extending the design beyond the tunnel area was of high interest for the design team. However, as the time ran short, the design became more focused on the tunnel. Extending the design further into the city would have been beneficial for added coherence. For example, the tracks could have been incorporated in the street of Otto Busses Vej and break into the four paths a user can take when exiting the tunnel. Expansions like this, could have improved the experience of transition and made the design feel more cohesive. Sustainability was not a priority throughout this project. It was mostly implemented towards the end, when some details in the design were adjusted so light pollution would be minimized. The incorporation of Sustainable Design Goal to the design could have been a great step towards making it more sustainable. Furthermore, in theory we should be using less energy than the current lighting, since we use less luminaires and they are LED. Making a data comparison between how much energy is currently consumed versus how much would be consumed from our design could have also been a good step.

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5.2 Conclusion

The main focuses of this project were enhancing the transition between the Railway City and Enghavevej, making the Railway City more discoverable, all while promoting its historical heritage. Through this process, it was crucial to understand the context of the area. The first step was to analyze the geographical and historical context, the urban environment, social landscape and the atmosphere of the area. There were some themes that seemed more dominant over the others. One theme was the historical heritage and identity of the railways, the plurality of age groups using the area, and one more is the strong soundscape of the area, since the area is subjected to significant amount of traffic noise. The next step was moving from the holistic picture and zooming in the focus area of the transition, which was the tunnel. There was a user analysis, a spatial analysis and lighting analysis which gave a detailed understanding of the focus area. The result was a clear understanding of the area’s shortcomings, such as the poor discoverability of the tunnel due to the lowered position and poor signaling of the entrances, and the tunnel having a dull atmosphere because of its total uniformity. There was also a practical problem of the entrance area being simply too dark, which has been solved with increased overall illuminance. Furthermore, there was a need of getting inspiration from other projects, so the final design can add something new to the area, since improving discoverability was one of the main needs. An examination of other interactive lighting projects, local tunnel projects and the revitalization plans of the area took place. Other things that were examined was the lighting master plan, lighting standards and sustainability recommendations were essential, with the goal to fit the project perfectly in comparison to the rest of the city and the future. The conclusions of this research were that is it integral to keep the users in the center of the design process, to design in a sustainable way and to respect and promote the historical heritage. Also, it led us making a design that is lively, interactive, storytelling, as well as practical lighting that meet users’ needs. Finally, our interactive design concept for the continuously developing Railway City area proved to be a viable solution which fulfills our initial design criteria and subsequently the identified needs of the community.

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