Starting June 1, the library at the TU Ilmenau will host the exhibition “Stops of Life,” which explores the bus stop of the future. Eleven exhibition panels present the results of project work by students from three Thuringian universities, whose task was to design bus stops of the future for local public transportation. The result: mobility stations where sustainable modes of transportation can be used as efficiently as possible and which serve as social hubs for people. The exhibition will be on view from June 1 through 12 during the library’s opening hours; admission is free.
Bus shelters are a thing of the past—in the future, there will be mobility stations. In a project by the Thuringian Mobility Network for Transportation Space Design, students from the TU Ilmenau, the Bauhaus University Weimar, and the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt were tasked with reimagining the bus shelter and projecting it into the future.
At TU Ilmenau, students developed bus stops that are as user-friendly as possible through project work. They recommend taking the travelers’ perspective into account at a very early stage. This not only increases the usability of the stops but also their acceptance. Students at the Bauhaus University Weimar focused on the design of future bus stops and developed concepts in various sizes. And at the University of Applied Sciences Erfurt, students developed concepts for mobility stations in Thuringia and criteria for their requirements and amenities.
The ideas and designs from Thuringian students show what mobility stations of tomorrow could look like: seamless digital passenger information, designs that are practical and comfortable, and barrier-free access. They remind us that bus stops are more than just transit points: they are social spaces, places where people come together, wait together, and interact with one another. Bus shelters are becoming mobile social hubs, “stops of life.”
After the traveling exhibition opened in the government district in Erfurt, it will now be on display at the University Library of TU Ilmenau from June 1 to 12, before it can also be experienced virtually on June 20 during the Ilmenau Science Night at the Kirchhoffbau. The exhibition will then move on to Weimar.
Contact
Milena Pfafferott
University Library
+49 3677 69-4605
milena.pfafferott@tu-ilmenau.de
