The birth of Mass transit system or the imperative of technology: a look back at the design of suburban train stations in the 1970s

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article looks at the suburban train stations built or rebuilt in the Paris Region during the 1970s. Through the analysis of articles from the railway trade press, it reveals how the railway engineers, mostly operationals seeking primarily to tackle fast-growing traffic volumes, have designed new kinds of sociotechnical objects to deal with metropolisation processes. In particular, it shows how their standardized nature contributes on the one hand to the erasure of the territories they serve, and how, on the other hand, their layout as channelling systems tends to obscure the figure of the user. In doing so, it demonstrates how important it is to take into account both technology and usage when designing transport spaces.