Expert: Richard Taylor, AIA - 12/3/2003

Question
Can you tell me about mobile interiors...i.e, the process in designing the interiors of trains, planes, busses?  Imparticular I am interested in difficulties, "road blocks" if you will, in the process...i.e. disabled passangers and what not.  However, any insite and or direction that you might have concerning the issue will be greatly appretiated.  I am trying to come up with a thesis for a research project and am finding a lot of dead ends.
much gratitude,
Cortney Greene  

Answer
Cortney:

Thanks for your question!

I can't give you much information - we don't do that kind of work here - but maybe I can give some leads to follow.

Regarding busses (I believe they prefer to call them "coaches") one of the biggest refitting companies is here in central Ohio.  Their name is Custom Coach and they've done a lot of custom work for celebrities.  You should contact them directly and see what they can do for you.  Their website is www.customcoach.com.

Train car design isn't much of a field anymore since there's so little train travel these days.  But there are companies that specialize in restoring old Pullman and other cars for wealthy clients - although I don't know any particular companies.  For regular passenger trains, Amtrak and Rail Canada are the two biggies.  I would think that someone at those companies would be able to lead you to their design consultants.  I know that Amtrak has done quite a bit of research into the design of cutting-edge passenger cars.

Boeing, McDonell-Douglas, and Airbus are the big commercial aircraft designers and they certainly have entire departments devoted to interiors design.  There is also a very big business in corporate jet interior design - you should contact Lear, Grumman, and Cessna for leads in that field.

I'd also contact Architectural Digest Magazine - they often run articles on customized mobile interiors including big boats (there's another angle you might want to explore).

And, there are trade magazines for all of these specialized design fields - if you're also considering boats, Yachting Magazine is a place to start.

Hope this helps!

Richard Taylor, AIA
Richard Taylor Architects, LLC
www.rtaylorarchitects.com