Modernist urbanism under automated mobility scenarios

Abstract

Modernist urbanism under automated mobility scenarios, develops a method to intervene and enhance the quality of public spaces in modernist areas, based on a possible automated mobility scenario that triggers new relationships between car infrastructure, public space and the rest of the urban fabric. New uses for mobility landscapes in transformation are proposed, the new interventions stimulate an optimized use of the space, and upgrade the overall quality of the existing urban environment. In this project, the modern model is, on the one hand, used as an historical / conceptual reference, in which vehicular technology have been used as a determining factor in the development and transformation of cities contributed to the creation of an urban model considered unsuccessful (Aquilué & Ardura, 2017). On the other hand, is also used as a contextual reference, that has produced patterns of open block structure, separation of traffic and functions and the elimination of the street as a ‘social space’ at a global scale. In order to use Automated mobility as a trigger to generate upgrading opportunities for these areas, we try to identify typical patterns of value related to the model, to generate design proposals that can be transferable to different contexts. To this aim, this project develops a Toolbox, where a database combines information from the literature framework, and a system of pattern language is used to combine all the elements, and a possible scenario of automated mobility, to create design proposals that are tested in the Slotermeer area in Amsterdam.Finally, possibilities for future developments as an Online tool are outlined, envisioning the possibilities of application and knowledge transferability, allowing for different scales of implementation and interaction with users; increasing the flexibility of the system, allowing user interaction, the integration of knowledge, and its use as a basis for the development of participatory processes and interventions in diverse contextual situations.