Mobility

The future belongs to e-mobility, that much is certain. Whereas in the Global North people are mostly complaining about low ranges, in the South an e-car’s battery can be charged using solar energy while parked.

Right at the top of the parking garage at Berlin’s “Neukölln Arcaden”, for some years now the “Klunkerkranich” has happily existed in its very own urban biotope. A local meeting point, and not just for hipsters.

Multistory carparks are the storage medium of the automobile age. Here, traffic comes to a planned halt.

Düsseldorf’s new subway line with its six stations is persuasive in architectural, artistic and engineering terms.

Luxurious mobility and progressive architecture have always been a perfect match.

How did Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal in New York come about? Why is Friedrich Kiesler’s vision of an “Endless House” still so topical? And what does Kodak City Rochester look like? The following books provide the answers.

So what does it look like, the automobile inner world of the outer world of the world of interiors? Everyone’s talking about digitalization, yet the interior fit-outs remain surprisingly conventional.

What do car keys look like in the age of digitalization? Have they finally ceased to be status symbols? We checked out a few of the latest examples at the Frankfurt International Motor Show.

Be it rock or opera, the living-room revolution has a name: „RR126". In the 1960s, no one matched Brionvega’s consistent emphasis on design for radios, TVs and hi-fi equipment.

They quite literally shaped automobile design and created the one or other icon to boot: Italian car body sculptors Bertone, Giugiaro, Pininfarina and Zagato.

They were the classic toys of members of high society and the jet set. „Riva" models such as the „Aquarama" can hardly be topped in the eleganza rankings.

There are many racing motorcycles around. One of the most beautiful and the most successful of all time is the “MV Agusta Tre”.

A streamlined racing car that resembles a bullet. Carlo Mollino knew like no other how to blend technology and poetry.

Low, compact and very fast: In the Lamborghini “Miura” with its transversely mounted V12, the automotive fighting bull is comparatively gentle.

Sun, air, love – and a “Vespa”. Mobility can’t get any more Italian and folksy than that. The little “Wasp” has long since become mythical.

Are they really beautiful, the 1950s Alfa Romeo models known as “B.A.T.” for short? Spacey all three certainly are, even if Batman was not an Italian and is not called “pipistrello”.

How to live in orbit? Adeline Seidel talked with Galina Balashova, the interior designer of the Russian space capsules, about green floors, blue ceilings and creating a sense of homeliness in space.

To this day the Italians are the unrivaled masters of making the most beautiful machines. Some have red heads and 12 cylinders.

Africa is urbanizing faster than any other continent. But tends to be forgotten in the debates on ubran mobility. Perhaps because the challenges are too great? Or perhaps because we aren’t being imaginative enough.

Must a car always have four wheels? Not at all. The “Bond Bug” not only proves that three’s enough, but also has quite a sassy feel to it. But the question remains – why is it that nature has not spawned any three-legged creatures?

It seemingly moves of its own volition, creates its own cosmos, tells us what we have to do, plays the lead in movies, has its own sound, and everything about it has to be designed: Our relationship to the automobile and the automobile to us, proves to be astonishingly diverse.

The Audi Urban Future Award 2014 goes to Mexico City. With their proposal for an “operating system for urban mobility”, the interdisciplinary research group centering on José Castillo won out against teams from Boston, Berlin, and Seoul.

Many driving instructors enjoy the driver assistance systems in today's cars. The sector is not worried that piloted driving might one day cost them their job – to the contrary actually.

Despite assistance systems in cars, driving instructors are sure that their competence still will be needed in the future.

Team Seoul uses the car to promote social engagement as a status symbol in Korea.

Philip Parsons, head of Team Boston, explains the opportunities of a close collaboration between urban designers and traffic planners.

Elevators, that know the destination of passengers, are highly efficient. Could this principle work for cars, too? Martin Lewicki talked to Paul Friedli about driverless transport systems.

When Berlin´s new airport BER is in use, what will happen with the former area of the Berlin airport Berlin-Tegel?

Motivation is a central aspect of “gameful design” and intends to have a positive influence on user´s behavior.

The divisible car as a new interpretation of car sharing? Charlotte Malz talked to Prof. Fügener about concepts of future mobility.

What kind of urban realm makes you feel good? Scientists have developed different methods to demonstrate the psychological impact of cities on their inhabitants.

Team Berlin: The city as a nervous system requires a different kind of swarming behavior.

On the occasion of the fifth annual conference on global urbanism at the Columbia University, New York, Catriona McLaughlin talked to thinker Saskia Sassen about the relation between invisible and visible mobility, the power of open-source-systems and her ongoing research on “urbanizing technology”.

In the Audi-Forum in Ingolstadt the teams in this year’s Audi Urban Future Award allowed the public a first look at their research.