Sho Nozue
Global Center for Social Innovation
Product Design Department
Designer
Minoru Ikeda
Global Center for Social Innovation
Product Design Department
Chief Designer
Taiwan Railways Administration’s EMU3000 intercity express train started its commercial operation at the end of 2021. In addition to TRA and Hitachi, the local designer team participated in the project to create a new social infrastructure by taking account of Taiwanese history, culture and its people’s values. EMU3000 has received high evaluations and was selected as the “GOOD DESIGN AWARD BEST 100”.
The major achievement is that external design experts were involved in the TRA’s project for the first time. This happened because, in Taiwan, its public policy is linked strongly with design. The concept of this project was to incorporate the opinions of designers who know the local society and culture and lead them to better proposals. As we expected, the discussions were advanced smoothly and productively among those who respect each other’s designs.
We established what the rolling stock design should look like through dialogues with the experts familiar with Taiwanese design and sensibilities. The concept of “Silent Flow”, which is frequently used along with keywords such as quietness, calmness, and white space, expresses values common to Taiwan’s past and present.
Sho Nozue, one of the designers, confides “At first, I placed importance on the impression of Taiwan viewed from the outside as well as Taiwan’s unique style. However, during a workshop, a member from the Taiwanese side said, “We want to express the Taiwan’s progressive nature we could be proud of in the world and the future of Taiwan.” In particular, Nozue focused on the word “Subtle (faint, sensitive, precise and casual)” that was frequently used by the members to describe Taiwan’s modernity.
Nozue visited various places including museums during his stay in Taiwan to learn about artworks as much as possible. He says, “In these artworks, brightness and popness are controlled by white spaces. This led to a calm feeling rather than “flashy”, I think.” Minoru Ikeda, one of the designers, also says, “When I walked the streets in Taiwan, I noticed that the sense of scale and humidity of Taiwan are similar to those of Japan. So, I felt the illusion that I am now in Japan.” Considering these similarities and differences between Taiwan and Japan, Taiwanese members and Japanese members tuned words while having dialogues, and finally got to “Silent Flow”. Nozue and Ikeda says, “This was achieved in a very natural way, rather than someone decided. At that point, a relationships of trust was established, and we both were able to proceed to the end of the project without any major discrepancies in the concept of this design.
The rolling stock design of EMU3000 is based on European standard-based rules, which are said to be particularly strict in the world, and Hitachi’s design knowledge developed for British railways is utilized. The cross section of the rolling stock is a square shape that is also often seen in Japanese rolling stock. In order to meet the “atmosphere with a sense of speed” requested by TRA, Nozue and other members explored a line that smoothly runs from the front carriage to the last carriage.
The important point is how to make the front carriage look like slender. The shape of the front window and side windows of the front carriage, and the black graphic portions that cover these windows were balanced so that the black band runs to the top of the rolling stock to make the proportion of the white area look slender horizontally. Based on the sketch drawn by Nozue, fine adjustments of the proportion were repeatedly made together with the designers while looking at its 3D data. Nozue says, “We didn’t increase the number of the kinds of formative expressions as many as possible, and at the same time we didn’t rely too much on the graphics.”
Regarding the exterior coloring, we decided to use white and black as the main colors. EMU3000 runs in the changing scenery of mountains and oceans, connecting major cities in Taiwan. Nozue says, “I wanted to make a railway rolling stock look good in any scenery without being tied to any characteristic. So, I thought that it was better not to add a lot of chromatic colors.” Exceptionally, five color palettes were used as accents on the interior and exterior of the railway rolling stock. Each color has a name and meaning, and was used for a part of the exterior or tags attached to the side of each seat.
The interior is united with urban and sophisticated impression by highlighting the horizontal and vertical straight lines that make up the seats and luggage racks. For example, we initially proposed that the deck of the railway rolling stock should be a dark space whose keynote is black, but with the advice of the local designers, the appearance was adjusted to be more acceptable to Taiwanese people. Nozue says, “It was very good that the design was made in a way that it was acceptable to all people involved, based on the objective opinions rather than personal preferences and subjective opinions.”
In addition, User Interface Designer from Hitachi were also involved in the graphic design of the information displays installed on the interior and exterior of the train, which show train destinations, train types and various other information, in order to ensure the graphic design suits the appearance of EMU3000. Ikeda explains, “Mincho type had often been used for the conventional rolling stock, but in consideration of visibility and balance with the railway rolling stock, we adopted sans-serif type and reduced the number of colors considerably.”
In this way, we pursued simplicity in the design of the EMU3000 train by eliminating as many unnecessary elements as possible in both the exterior and interior. Therefore, the fineness of the detail and the accuracy of manufacturing are required more than ever, so we cannot use any “deception”. Nozue says, “Sometimes I couldn’t sleep because I was so worried during the manufacturing of our first rolling stock.” However, in the end, the railway rolling stock was completed just as designed and with high accuracy, demonstrating that Hitachi’s manufacturing department has a high level of technology. The concept was consistent with the detail, and everyone involved was convinced, “This is just what we wanted to do.”
Furthermore, there was an event that made Nozue and other members feel anxious. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, we couldn’t go on business trips to the factory or the site, so we couldn’t perform verification of the actual rolling stock as we had expected. Most of the final confirmations were left to the designers of the Taiwanese side. Nozue says, “We and the Taiwanese members had met frequently to share mutual understanding, so the Japanese side and Taiwanese side had been able to build mutual trust relationships. So, this actually contributed to the achievement.”
Various details for the interior of the railway rolling stock
Simple and effective graphic design
Design of the sign with a sense of uniformity
The EMU3000 train started its commercial operation at the end of December 2021, and has been used by many passengers. TRA held an event to unveil the rolling stock design before the commercial operation and made efforts to send various information using SNS. These efforts also contributed to the success. Looking back on the project, Ikeda says, “The Taiwanese side acted very quickly and used SNS to utilize the feedback in the design. We learned a lot of things from the Taiwanese side. In this way, "I believe that we have achieved both a large grand design and elaborate detail, leading to a high evaluation.” says Ikeda.
On the other hand, Nozue says, “It was a happy project as a designer.” It is rare that one designer is in charge of the process between concept work and the detail since the railroad design has a long lifecycle. Nozue learned a lot about how railway design should be as a social infrastructure, and says, “It was the toughest and most fulfilling period in my life.” Hitachi will make use of the valuable experience of deriving the best design through dialogues in the future work.
