Perception in Motion: Video as a Design Tool for Honolulu's Transit System

Abstract

This doctoral project introduces perception in motion as a design method for grounded transport networks – roads, pedestrian/ bike paths, and rail systems. To design for circulation networks that dictate the layout and lifestyle of a city, architects and planners need to understand the affects of current mobilescapes, which are environments that evolve from transport networks. In order to identify current issues of mobility this project documents a particular mobilescape in Honolulu, Hawai‘i – the elevated condition. I refer to the elevated condition as a type of transport system - such as the elevated highway, elevated mass transit system, and skyway - composed of two or more levels of movement. The strategy of overlapping is used to separate various modes of mobility that travel at different speeds and in different directions. Although the elevated access network can be an effective solution to organizing mobility, there is a modest understanding of the “experience” of moving through an elevated condition. Because Honolulu will begin to construct a 20 mile long elevated rail system in 2009, I wanted to understand what the experience could be. What will rail riders see and feel? How will the speed 4 of the rail affect what riders perceive? How will an understanding of the rail experience alter the way designers approach mobilescapes? In order to develop further understanding of mobilescape design, this project investigates mobility in two parts. Part one is a historical critique that explores the evolution of mobility in architecture and planning; inquiring about the effects that the automobile and other modes of surface transport have had on the urban environment. The goal is to understand how past approaches to mobilescapes have benefi ted or hindered the experience of urban cities. This exploration is not intended to address the issues of mobility within virtual space, vertical circulation in high-rise developments, nor does it include non-grounded transportation types such as air and sea travel. The fi ndings in the evolution of mobility supplement the second portion of this project that focuses on Honolulu’s elevated rail proposal. The elevated condition, within the existing context of Honolulu, is analyzed and documented in video format. The video is intended to be a simulated understanding of Honolulu’s transit experience; capturing the perception of the elevated condition at both upper and lower levels. The video documentary also highlights the issues of the projected experience and begins to introduce design suggestions that could enhance the elevated condition. The goal of the fi lm is to present planners and architects with a design tool, based on perception in motion, that can inform and influence the Honolulu rail system.