THE LIFE AUTOMATIC
MA Architecture, Year Two
July 2016
Royal College of Art, London
The Life Automatic speculates on a possible future in which all forms of transport - public, private, logistical - become fully automated and driverless, and the period during which this transformation occurs.
Within this scenario, the increased automation of labour leads to a rise in unemployment, exacerbating the current housing crisis. Unable to afford to own a home, this newly unemployed demographic take to their vehicles, becoming a sort of nomadic community who continuously circumnavigate the M25, leading to the emergence of a new typology of service station-cum- new town , providing cultural, educational, commercial and leisure amenities.
NEW TYPES OF VEHICLES
A fully driverless scenario would generate a surge in mobility and transport, as the interior of a car would no longer designed with human-dependent navigation as its driving force.
If no human attention is required for navigation, the car’s interior can become a space to live in and sleep in, as well as travelling in.
Mouse
Travels in solitary with a maximum of two passengers and regards speed and constant mobility as the most important elements of their day-to-day. It would typically only park at a service station for the amount of time it needs to recharge.
Cat
Carries a small family or group and travel at medium speed. Their design allows for mice to travel through them if they are an obstruction on the road. As a family environment their interests in long-term parking come from their desire for community building.
Elephant
Carries a large family and is distinctively slow moving, it is a vehicle used by travelling communities who – like elephants – move in a trail, and typically park for a longer amount of time
Tortoise
Flexible space that can be used for conference or retail purposes, and become little centres around which other vehicles park.
The Mouse, Cat, Elephant and Tortoise are new types of vehicles that promote particular lifestyles within this new nomadic culture. As they settle, their parking becomes more like mooring, and their constantly readjusting configuration become the parking strategy that revolves around the new cultural centres. The service station, therefore, emerges as an evolved typology that holds similarities to that of a new town structure and its residential surroundings.
M25 Junction 16 | M40 Junction 1A
The mirrored architecture stems from the service station's typologological history in England, where speed and direction of travel were key factors incorporated into the design strategy.
The twin condition of the service station, a characteristic reminiscent of the typology's foundations, invites the potential for two different societies developing in tandem.
The service station comprises of the components needed to generate a new town, and generates its economy and employment both through the development of driverless technology as well as the civic and commercial maintenance of the service station.
The external circular geometry holds a relationship with the motorway infrastructure and the entire design as a whole, whereas the interior – defined by a square – produces a more formalised configuration of programme.
The Life Automatic; mixed media. (850mm)
The architecture celebrates a navigational culture that is no longer relevant to the driverless present. The orientation around the space is instantly clear as each division is based on an old car-related aesthetic. The architectural style questions what might happen when such particular aesthetic are combined with such a formal configuration.
Welcome to The Life Automatic
Motorway Retail
Car Park Academy
Drive Thru Convenience