Transport Design: a Travel History

"Transport Design" is the first design history to investigate the experience of travel, analysing the vehicle from the passengers' and drivers' points of view. Gregory Votolato takes us inside a wide range of vehicles, from buses and limousines, to dugout canoes and superferries, to aircraft such as the Graf Zeppelin and the Apollo space craft. Organised in three parts - air, land, and sea - "Transport Design" shows how the design of a vehicle shapes our experience of the journey, from home to work, or from the earth to the stars. In an authoritative yet accessible style, Votolato explores the relationship between mass transportation and the travel experience, taking into account the pressures of global commerce and global warming, and argues for a radical reappraisal of how and why we travel. Themes explored include comfort, safety, technology, style, economics, customisation and entertainment, acknowledging along the way the contributions of important individuals, such as entrepreneur George Mortimer Pullman and the ship designer Dorothy Marckwald. Throughout, Votolato encourages us to see and to question our travel experiences in relation to the design of the vehicles in which we travel. Apparent banalities, such as the travelseat, are revealed as having great significance: From Theodore Woodruff's nineteenth century patented sleeping couch for railway passengers, Marc Newson's sleeping pods for long-haul flyers, or today's ergonomically contoured and electronically adjustable car seats, furniture designed for transportation has consistently led the furnishings of homes and offices in the technology they employ to provide personally tailored comfort, the Holy Grail of transport design. For the reader interested in how we travel, or for the designers of our future vehicles, Greg Votolato provides an insightful, readable, and entertaining account of two centuries of travel design.