Abstract
The subway lines have been expanded to solve the traffic problems in Korean cities, so that a big number of people daily use the subway stations. Therefore, subway stations became a kind of public space as well as traffic space. However, the underground space of the stations are essentially different with the aboveground space in terms of environmental and psychological terms. The color planning can be used to reduce the environmental and psychological disadvantages of underground spaces of subway stations. The purpose of this study is to understand the current design methods of subway stations' color planning. To achieve this purpose, this study investigates all reports of 'Color Planning for the Subway' which were used for the construction of subway lines in 6(six) Korean cities. After analyzing the design theories and methods used for the color planning, field studies have been done upon 10 subway lines of 6 cities, to find out the limitations of color planning, the differences between color planning and actual results. The conclusions are as follows : First, the color planning for subway stations does not seem to consider the characteristics of underground space and its psychological effects, such as the depth of station, the lighting source and methods. Second, some critical differences have been found between the color planning and the actual application during construction, due to arbitrary interpretation and limitations of color expression of the construction materials. Third, and therefore, the colors applied in stations do not perform their planned role such as 'variety in the unity', 'symbolic expression of the city and station'.
