As commuters return to trains, stations and offices, and as the Design Council sponsors a national conversation about the future of local station design, we explore the wonders of prefab design on the railways
On my travels I encountered the good, bad and ugly of railway architecture (writes photographer Luke O’Donovan), but what I was pleasantly surprised to see almost everywhere I visited was the civic pride that both railway staff and the public have for the railways.
My photographs started as an architectural project, but the more stations I visited, the more I began to appreciate how much of the magic of a great station comes from everything else: people, community and place. To twist the words of the late great Jane Jacobs, stations have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody
