Tokyo-born designer Jun Yasumoto graduated in 2001 from Ensci-Les Ateliers, Paris, where he currently lives and works.
His diploma project called ‘Suburban Train Seating’ was created in 2001:
‘Made of 12cm wide modules, this folding seat system for suburban trains allows a variety of postures and uses. It can be used as a support for a “half-seating” position, and act as an armrest or simply a seat.
Suburban trains have the particularity to have strong occupancy variations throughout their trips, usually starting almost empty in the far suburbs, and ending heavily crowded as they approach the center of town.
Thanks to this seating system, the train interior becomes reactive to its occupancy. Depending on how crowded the coach is, users can whether comfortably sit using the modules as armrests, or half-sit to make more space for others in very crowded situations.
Commute trips can be very repetitive. The train interior’s asymetric lay-out enlarges the possibilities to vary the users’ positions and point of views while they travel, in addition to the flexibility offered by the seat modules’ functionalities.
When not in use, the retracted seats offer more floor space and give a lighter and more spacious feeling to the train’s interior, making it also easier to circulate through the coach.’
This is a beautiful design and I love it. I suppose you can justify the cost with studies that point to an increase in passengers with its proposed aesthetics and comfort. Good timing for the railways, I’d like to see them step up with campaigns that tie into the public’s popular “more green, less gas” direction and the possible fact that as the economy strengthens, more people will be commuting again. Catch them now, before they settle back into the car routine.