Research On Space Organization And Design Of Hub-type Railway Passenger Stations Based On Wayfinding Theory

As the urban transportation terminals develop in the direction of large-scale and complex at present in China, the railway stations in particular, the development of urban multi-transportation hub as a new type station becomes more quickly. The stations designed to not only strengthen their cooperation with cities and transportation systems, but also meet the requirement of a higher standard of "humane" in the design for their public space environments. Taking the requirement as a starting point, this article made a discussion on questions of wayfinding difficulty in station spaces and ways to help people find right site targets, using spatial organization and design methods.Firstly, the paper sorted out researches on wayfinding problem at home and abroad, which were the basis for detailed interpretation of the concept of "wayfinding" and the theoretical meaning of its process, and pointed out that "space complexity", "help-oriented spatial characteristics (objects)" and "environmental perceptual accessibility" are the most important space factors which influenced wayfinding.Then, as far as the hub-type railway passenger stations were concerned, this paper made a classification of research on spatial composition and organization of stations related to wayfinding and summarized four spatial key features of stations that effected wayfinding: unlike the traditional, large-scale, functional intensive and three-dimensional flows, as well as the potential of specific wayfinding issues, combining with analysis of psychological and behavioral characteristics of passengers.Taking Shanghai South Railway Station and Beijing South Railway Station for examples of on-site survey, Chapter IV has researched on wayfinding situations in station spaces (passenger's basic situation, wayfinding decision-making methods), wayfinding problems (locations and reasons of wayfinding difficulty, entry and exit issues, transfer issues) and visitors'wayfinding feelings, by way of questionnaires and interviews. Especially for the Shanghai South Railway Station, the chapter has also carried out kinds of wayfinding evaluation, such as maps distinction, floors judgement and direction identification etc.. This chapter is designed to find the real objective wayfinding conditions in stations to reveal the relations between spatial organization and design methods of a station and wayfinding behaviors.Finally, based on the first three chapters of both theoretical and practical part of the study, the last chapter made a discussion on plane type selection, spatial organization, and the whole and partial space design on identifiability, diversity and design-oriented aspects, combining with space features of stations, with a view to develop space design patterns of a station and to propose suggestions about spatial organization and design which can help people find their targets effectively.