An investigation into transportation equity and accessibility in urban environments. This project visualizes the disparities in public transit access and proposes solutions for more equitable transportation systems. It is an interactive memory walkthrough built in Unity that reconstructs fragments of New York City subway stations. The project uses scanned elements—like mosaic walls, cracked tiles, benches, and trash cans—to create layered stories about how people occupy transit spaces in ways that are often overlooked. To convey this perspective, the project adopts a lower angle, resembling a third-person view from the perspective of a rat.
The focus is on how public infrastructure, such as the subway, can simultaneously serve as shelter and exclusion. Some people easily tap through OMNY gates and ride the trains, while others claim benches or corners as their homes. I wanted to explore this contrast between mobility and immobility within the same space.
By incorporating elements like fog, spotlighting, and ambient sound, users experience these zones not as typical transit spaces but as memory spaces—places that hold traces of lived survival. Each interactive object reveals a fragment of someone’s life: a person who slept on a bench, played music in a corner, or simply tried to stay warm during harsh conditions.
The project is inspired by a climate justice perspective, questioning how cities prepare for environmental challenges while leaving vulnerable people exposed underground. It reflects on how ordinary infrastructure becomes quietly political—not just in terms of who moves through the station, but who is allowed to stay.
