Airbia: The PRT of the future? I mean, of the future future?The good people at Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com have narrowed submissions in their Reburbia: A Suburban Design Competition to the top twenty proposals for re-envisioning the sprawl that blights the American landscape and keeps us locked in our foreign-oil dependent, ever-expanding commute patterns.
From their announcement:
In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation?
While there are some very interesting proposals--like turning old big-box stores into residential units and converting freeway signs into horizontal windmills to generate electricity from the movement of cars--there are some other proposals that make personal rapid transit (PRT) look anachronistic.
Actually, it's the blimp transport proposal that currently has the most votes, so maybe you want to go over to the site and vote for something more practical?
Parasite Catalyst: Converting freeway signs into wind turbines.
Livablox: Turning big box stores into container homes.
