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Transitioning into new mobility : future curb space design

University of British Columbia

This thesis envisions how new mobility can contribute to making cities more sustainable and connected. It investigates a methodology for designing the physical, virtual, urban realms in tandem, across a dynamic timeline. It contributes to ideas on redesigning public spaces to be responsive to real-time use and demand and digitally connected. The thesis contributes to the design of a framework from which to visualize and understand the Digital Twin of the urban realm. Through the lens of the virtual realm, the urban Mobility Hub Network is explored as an Urban Mobility Digital Twin, while geocoded public space is looked at through the lens of Virtual Curb Space. This thesis explores, through speculative design, how cities can start reimagining the curb space – the part of the road typically dedicated to on-street parking – as a valuable physical public space and virtual real-estate that can be leveraged to create a more sustainable city-wide mobility network. Highlighting the role of the curb space as a building block of the network and the process of digital transformation of public space is a key contribution of this thesis. The research identifies opportunities to leverage new technologies in order to achieve the sustainability targets of municipalities and transit authorities regarding urban mobility. Design solutions are explored for the concept of Mobility Hubs, in different scales and typologies, anchored around transit. Mobility Hub components are broken down into different curb-space uses and looked at both in the physical, as in the virtual realms, through a phased approach. Seven case studies of locations in the Metro Vancouver area are explored as proof-of-concept of the speculative design proposal and its transitioning strategy. The transitioning strategy (Transitional Design Methodology) explored in the thesis allows for the incremental evolution of design solutions through experimentation. Tactical Urbanism is used to reduce speed of street reconfiguration with agility, aligning with the piloting of digital innovations and services which respond to real-time use. The thesis identifies that the unpredictable and uncertain outcomes of the deployment of new technologies requires design solutions that leave room for trial-and-error, and that allow for constant adaptation to digital innovations.

Text

2021-04-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/77955

Architecture

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/