MOBILITY MASTERPLAN
At the early twenty century Spanish urban planner Cerda believed that the steam tram would dominate the future of transportation in Barcelona and as such designed the “Ensanche”, an urban grid with a 45 degree angle block so that the tram could have enough clearance to turn.
The mass production of cars during the last half of that same century gave birth to the suburban city in the US, a horizontal and low density urban fabric far from the old and dense city centers. Mobility has had a direct roll on city making and will continue to be critical in the shaping of urban form.
Nowadays, mobility innovation is taking place in two scales. The first one, which we hear almost everyday from the media: the long distance (autonomus, electric cars i.e.). The second one, which is happening in a shorter distante, is called “the first Km” of our daily life movements: it is considered the short distance from home/office to the main public transportation hub and viceversa.
This masterplan explores for the entire area of Changdong a new mobility strategy for the FIRST 1KM concept that could shape future developments and give a unique urban character to the area..
It is proposed to allocate a number of mobile devices, with different distance range, (bicycles, scooters, zyrodrones and future ones still to be invented) in all transportation hubs available to general public so that it can be used to reach your final destination within the area. This will draw a plan where accessibility & permeability become main issues in the architectural design for the plots inside the masterplan.
CREATIVE PODIUM
The proposed building is organized in four longitudinal “bands” (or buildings) in a West-East orientation in order to maximize the orientation to the south. Buildings are separated between each other by green outdoor spaces providing privacy and relaxing views from the interior. This organization also allows for natural cross ventilation in most of the interior spaces.
The four buildings are connected by “the creative podium”, an open plan organization in the ground level, permeable in all directions, where different generation of students and professionals can meet and share ideas. The programs related to the manufacturing (3D printing, CNC, laser printing, etc) are located in the heart of the building, accessible to all from various levels.
The creative podium has universal accessibility and it is designed to allow various mobility devices to enter and move freely.
PERSONAL MOBILITY DEVICE PARKING & PORTABILITY
To encourage the use of clean transportation devices the building offers a large number of parking areas for various personal mobility vehicles.
The urban bike line crosses the building and enters the Generation Convergence Zone on the 1F allocating a large bike parking in the heart of the building.
More and more we see the personal portable vehicle as an extension of our body, same way the mobile phone or the laptop are. These portable vehicles are becoming extremely light and small. The degree of permeability of these vehicles in the building is directly related to the size and weight of them. The lightest and smallest ones can be taken all the way to the working desk while the bigger ones (like the bike) penetrates only up to the second floor.
