The First Drone Superhighway

As drones are becoming part of our horizon, urban infrastructures adapt to them. The team of Avoid Obvious Architects was asked to redesign highway G107 and its surrounding area in Bao’an, Shenzhen (China); together with Tetra Architects & Planners they proposed a utopian superhighway.

The redevelopment of the 30 kilometers long and 12-lane G107 highway comes about due to the city’s rapid modernization; Bao’an is transforming its old manufacturing sector to a more sustainable and technology oriented center. In response to this vision, the architects took up the challenge by questioning the role of the highway in the first place.

“We propose that traditional highways are outdated and inefficient. Our presentation will demonstrate that multimodal transportation systems that integrate automated technologies like drones, auto-pilot vehicles and high-speed transit are the future of 21st century urban development. We believe there is no need to expand Bao’an’s 12-lane highway. Instead of treating the traditional highway as a fixed piece of infrastructure, we will design a smaller, more fluid, multi-layered, thoroughfare that will be a spectacular starting point of growth for an organic smart city”.

Read more at Avoid Obvious Architects