WAYFINDING IN UNDERGROUND MRT STATIONS : A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ABOVE GROUND AND UNDERGROUND SPACES THAT ATTRIBUTE TO DIRECTIONAL SENSE AND POSITIVE SPATIAL PERCEPTION

Abstract

Urbanization and growing populations all over the world, especially in major world cities, have led to unprecedented demands on space. This leads to smaller households, pressure on housing and land prices, and a need for greater mobility. Besides the option of going up and building skyscrapers, there is the alternative of going underground. This is very relevant to the Singapore context, where spatial constraint is a big issue. An inevitable part of urbanization is the development of the transport systems. As certain areas of the city become more developed, likewise, transport systems have to cater for increased passenger flow and transport of goods and services. Trains are transport infrastructure that supports medium to long distance travel especially in major corridors of urban areas. This dissertation looks at the current transport situation in Singapore, where more and more Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations are going underground. Examples are the Circle Line and the Downtown Lines. As the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) plans for more MRT lines for ease of commuters and increased accessibility around Singapore, likewise, the number of intersections between lines, and hence, resulting interchanges are inevitable. Instead of an unorganized aggregation of different train lines, which may result in unpleasant transit spaces, proper planning and design considerations should be observed. One of the important potential hindering factors for utilization of underground spaces is psychological aspect and generally negative perceptions of these spaces. Wayfinding and orientation is one of the important aspects for an underground building due to the fact that there are not so many reference points and limited relation to the surface. This together makes it more difficult to understand one’s position in space.