from ReBurbia

“Inhabitat just announced the Top 20 finalists of the Reburbia design competition to revitalize the suburbs. Reburbia invited architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers to design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration.”

Here is the First Finalist:

AIRBIA: A Suburban Airship
Designed By: Alexandros Tsolakis / Irene Shamma

Project Description:

“Airbia proposes a new eco-friendly and efficient transportation system linking the suburbs and city centre. Corresponding to the lack of coherent public transportation in the majority of the sprawling cities, a set of airships is designed to form an additional network over the urban tissue.

The proposed network bases its flexibility on the limited required infrastructure (just overground platforms) and facilities, easy hovering, landing and passenger access. The target is to develop a set of routes covering nodal points of the suburbia, travelling all the way to the borders of the city centre creating a ring around it. This network would potentially replace the use of cars and trains as transportation between the suburbs and the city centers.

Being inspired by the zeppelin technologies, the proposed airship engages the idea using helium to hover, which is proven to be a sustainable and economical approach.
The proposed airship has a capacity to carry 400 people and travel with an avarage of 150 km/h speed on a hight between 30 – 500 meters. Instead of having a major airship station, Airbia proposes a more dispersed network of station-platforms, that constist of staircases, lifts and ticket spaces. This way the system becomes much more flexible, since these drop off – pick up platforms can be placed almost anywhere in the city.”

Source: ReBurbia
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