circle line square geometry in London underground
circle line square geometry in London underground
baker street
the circle line runs where the world’s first underground line opened in 1863.
it finally got a separate line on the tube map in 1949.
the circle line as we know it didn’t really begin until 1930s and its name first appeared on a poster in 1936.
today it’s in a spiral shape, that runs from hammersmith to edgware road, looping once around central London and back to edgware road.
victoria
westminster
notting hill gate
king’s cross st pancras
circles, lines and squares are basic elements that we can find in the environment, natural or artificial. the circle line is a perfect place to find geometries, into its old and new stations.
details that we usually ignore, are actually well designed, if we stop and observe them. to research these elements, we are going to go around the city three times, to explore each of them in three stations.
liverpool street
embankment
monument
tower hill
circle is the starting point of this geometric journey, via: westminster liverpool street baker street
westminster
westminster station is built in two levels: the sub-surface platforms opened in 1868, the deep level platforms opened as part of the jubilee line extension in 1999.
circles are used in design and architecture for their pleasant appearance and the absence of edges. they often create grids and patterns.
liverpool street
liverpool street station is situated on the north-east limits of the historic City of London. the underground station was opened in 1875.
the circle may be regarded as a magnified dot, a circular line or a closed curve that divides the plane into two regions: an interior and an exterior.
baker street
baker street excavations for the underground can be seen in a scene of the movie ‘Sherlock Holmes: a game of shadows’, shot in 2010 but set in 1891.
the circle can be associated to cyclic processes and eternity because it has no beginning or end, no orientation or direction.
line is the second element and the second lap: embankment monument king’s cross st pancras
embankment
embankment was opened in 1870 as charing cross and was renamed in 1974 charing cross embankment and two years later to the current name.
line is the best suited element for rhythmic repetition and variation: if lines run parallel, they form a striped pattern.
monument
monument station opened in 1884 and is named after the Monument to the great fire of London and is linked with bank station as an interchange.
lines are used to give a sense of perspective or to define the boundaries of surfaces.
king’s cross st pancras
king’s cross st pancras was the scene of a fire that killed about thirty people on the 18th November 1987. the cause was attributed to a lit match falling into an escalator machine room and setting fire to it.
lines are an abstract concept and we perceive them as gaps between solids, edges or small particles close together.
square is the last shape and the final destination: victoria tower hill notting hill gate
victoria
victoria underground station is the base for the freedom fighter V in ‘V for Vendetta’ comic book series and it also appears in the film.
a square is a regular plane figure, a quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles. if a square stands on its side, we perceive it as static, and if it stands on an edge, it seems more dynamic.
tower hill
tower hill, opened in 1967, is close to one of the largest remainings of the Roman London wall that surrounded the historic City of London.
square are particularly stable and orderly shapes and are used to design icons and buttons, both actual or virtual.
notting hill gate
notting hill gate abandoned passageways were reopened in 2010, and found covered with original 1900s posters still hanged on the walls.
squares are used in the built environment to design objects, grids and structures, and are a good module for tiles patterns and textures.
colophon photography and design susan tonso course pg cert dvc 2016 paper munken polar rough white 120 and 170 gms typeface helvetica 45 light and 75 bold
sources circle square triangle Bruno Munari corraini 2014 the elements of design Oei Loan Cecile de Kegel thames & hudson 2004 tfl.com wikipedia
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