Britain’s future train stations, in VR
ExploreStation: multi-user VR for Network Rail and the Design Council’s national conversation on local stations
For: Network Rail and the Design Council, with Digital Urban
Station design: 7N Architects’ HUB Station
When: 2022 – touring the UK, then London Design Festival
Built with: Unreal Engine, multi-user VR, real train seats and luggage
In short
Network Rail asked the public to help shape the design of its next generation of small and medium stations – potentially more than 2,000 of them. The Design Council ran ExploreStation, a national programme of engagement, and its most immersive strand was VR. We built that VR: a multi-user Unreal experience where visitors sit in real train seats, pull into the new station, then step off and walk around it together, luggage in hand. Its evaluation found it reached a younger, more diverse audience than consultation usually does.
Arriving at the station of the future, from real train seats. Photo: Jason Hynes / National Railway Museum.
The brief
7N Architects won Network Rail’s international competition with the HUB Station: a flexible “kit of parts” for small and medium stations, designed around inclusion, accessibility, sustainability and the station’s role in its community. Before developing it further, Network Rail and the Design Council wanted the public to experience it and say what they thought – including people who would never read a design report or come to a consultation.
The experience
Visitors take their seats on a train and watch the new station appear as they pull in, then step off and explore it at their own pace – with luggage, and with fellow travellers in headsets alongside them. They can see it at different times of day and in different weather, and hear the announcements. A guided session takes 15 to 20 minutes. As they came out, visitors gave their views on paper feedback forms – alongside the programme’s online consultation and workshops.
On tour: luggage in hand, two visitors meet the train at the new platform – their view on the big screen behind them. Video: Digital Urban.
The set at the National Railway Museum, York: a signal box, real train seats and a platform to step onto.
On tour
- National Railway Museum, York – 4–5 May 2022
- Locomotion, Shildon – 7–8 May 2022
- Science and Industry Museum, Manchester – 11–13 May 2022
- Shell Store, Hereford – 16–17 May 2022
- Telfords, Paisley – 19–20 May 2022
- London Design Festival, V&A – 21 September 2022, when the programme’s findings were published
- National Railway Museum, York – back again for October half term 2022
In the press
- Design Council – “ExploreStation: building momentum for a future passenger hub”, the programme’s evaluation report (September 2022, PDF)
- Yorkshire Post – “Railway museum offers glimpse of how stations may look in the future” (May 2022)
- Design Week – Design Council invites the public to consult on train stations (March 2022)
- London Design Festival – the ExploreStation VR experience at the V&A (September 2022), and “Imagine your ideal train station”
- 7N Architects – HUB station proposals published for nationwide consultation
- National Railway Museum – ExploreStation back for October half term 2022
- Engineering Designer – Have your say on the design of Britain’s local railway stations
- The Glass-House – ExploreStation: enabling a national conversation about the future of stations
What it achieved
Over eleven days on tour in May 2022, 630 people tried the VR experience, and 308 of them left feedback, on forms or in conversation with the team. ExploreStation’s evaluation, published at London Design Festival 2022, found that the VR experience attracted a younger and more diverse audience, and was particularly effective with people who had little knowledge of design or technical detail – exactly the people a design consultation usually misses. It gave them a way to contribute to the stations they’ll use, and fed into how 7N’s designs were developed.
What we did
- Multi-user architecture – several visitors, and a guide, sharing one station at the same time.
- The journey and the walk – the train arrival, the step onto the platform, and free exploration of the station on foot.
- Times of day and weather – so people could judge the design in the conditions they’d really use it.
- All the interactivity in Unreal Engine, and the optimisation to keep a detailed station model smooth in VR at busy public events.
Behind the scenes in York: headsets ready on the operators’ desk.
Digital Urban built the 3D models and art from 7N Architects’ designs, and ran the events with the Design Council.
Our VR work with Digital Urban, including ExploreStation.
ExploreStation was one of several public engagement projects we built with Digital Urban in 2022 – see interactive public consultation for councils, from jet packs in Farnham to a pedalo on the Wirral.
Planning a consultation, an exhibition or an event that needs people to actually take part? Get in touch.
