For the most part, commuters don’t stop to notice the complexity of the systems they use to get around each day. Like water and electricity, the smooth operation of the rail system is mostly taken for granted, commanding attention only when something goes awry.
Counteracting our collective apathy, Tomoyuki Tanaka’s ballpoint drawings of Tokyo’s train stations remind us how remarkable urban transportation really is. By rendering the exteriors of Japan’s largest rail stations transparent, Tanaka lays bare the massive infrastructure that allows people to efficiently navigate the labyrinth of the modern city. The result is nothing short of captivating.
Shibuya Station
Almost as impressive as the images themselves is Tanaka’s surprisingly speedy and low-tech process. “It takes about a week to research and organize the information,” he told Wired in an email, “and another week to draw.” Tanaka does not enlist the help of computers at all, sketching his first draft in pencil and his second in pen. Remarkably, the drawings are still highly accurate and drawn to scale.
Shinjuku Station; serving 3.64 million people per day, this station is the world’s busiest transportation hub, according to Guinness World Records.
In Tanaka’s drawings, individual pedestrians and rail travelers are rendered in tiny, gestural, strokes, allowing the functionality of the station to take center stage. “I want to show the relations between the internal and external spaces of the station,” explained Tanaka.
Tokyo Station
If you are lucky enough to find yourself in Tokyo between now and September 25, you can see these drawings for yourself at the “Doboku Civil Engineering” exhibition at the 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT gallery. If not, enjoy these digital reproductions. It also wouldn’t hurt to stop and take a look around the next time you are in a major urban rail station.
All images via Wired