A designer whose proposal to redraw Madrid’s Metro system has been attacked as unworkable has hit back with the ultimate defence: ‘I ran it by my mother-in-law.’
Rafa Sañudo, whose credits include designing CD covers, videos and adverts, has been commissioned by the city’s authorities to redesign the entire underground system.
But initial reviews of his plan by madrileños visiting the website of national paper El País are less than complimentary.
“It’s a monstrosity,” one said. “Idiotic and unnecessary. The old one was more realistic,” wrote another, reflecting on Sanudo's proposed map, which incorporates additional lines and 80 new stations.
Similar protestations have come from Anden 1, a group of Madrid train enthusiasts, which The Times understands has branded the redesign as “confusing and illegible.”
But speaking to El País, Sañudo said he stands by his creation. “We knew that whatever we did, we would get hit from all sides.”
The previous map was not geographically sound either. “But because people are used to seeing it, they think it is,” he said.
In what was presumably a bid to add clout to the feasibility of his design, Sañudo added that his map had undergone the most rigorous of tests.
This included testing it on his “mother-in-law and her bridge partners,” giving him the assurance that the map will be accepted in due course.
“In a year, people will have adopted it as their own,” he said. “No one likes new things at the beginning.”
Apr 25, 2007
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