Autonomous Transportation System

A computer rendered image of the S.A.T. Project running through an airport lounge.

The Project

According to the UN, by 2030 about 5 billion people are expected to live in cities. Together China, India, and Brazil are projected to have as many urban inhabitants as the entire developed world (Hinrichsen, 2002). The US National Transportation Board predicts that delays caused by congestion will increase by 5.6 billion hours in the period between 1995 and 2015 (Motavalli, 2002), while money and time spent in congestion amounts up to over $78 billion per year due to inefficiency. The unsustainable development and critical conditions found in present day mega-cities along with their inability to cope with the increasing demands imposed by contemporary modes of living are shaping urban settlements as an unstable equation.

The R&D Division at Serrano Pecorari & Asociados in reaction has proposed the "4D Cities Programme", which led to the conception and design of a set of projects rooted in this formulation of the urban manifesto. The "4D City Theory" defines the "re-conception of present cities under a new urban order, upgraded under a space-time equation", establishing a new-system of thought as well as a new economical and financial order which define urban structures within the established urban order and the paradigmatic shift in urban mobility. The designers propose thus a hyper-vertical building typology and a transportation system which may re-organise present infrastructures to guarantee interconnectivity- the Autonomous Transportation System(S.A.T. Project).

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