Designboom has posted an eye-catching photo series of some of the world's best subway architecture. They range from the old-world opulence of Moscow's Komsomolskaya station to the near seizure inducing optics of Shanghai Bund Sightseeing tunnel.

My favourites have to be the Indiana Jones-esque Museum Station in Toronto, and the colourful cave-like spaces of Stockholm's Tunnelbana.

Frank Pick, Commercial Manager of the London Undergroung in the early 20th C., was one of the first people to talk about the role that public transportation plays in creating the identity of a city. Used by thousands everyday, public transit is more than just a way of getting around town. The experience of taking transit and the design of the space and it's iconography profoundly shapes how you see a city.

Pick focused on creating a uniform look for the Tube through the design of signs, maps and promotional posters (the icons of the London tube that most of us are familiar with). Designboom's pics show the next stage in that pursuit when that attention to creating an identity for the transit system influences the design of the infrastructure itself. It's beautiful stuff - and who knows what is waiting for us around the corner!

This piece originally appeared on OpenAlex.