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The resulting internal transportation network enabled by this system resembles a public transit tramway system more than it resembles a traditional elevator sys
by nneonneo 9y ago
The resulting internal transportation network enabled by this system resembles a public transit tramway system more than it resembles a traditional elevator system - and I'm willing to bet that isn't accidental. As skyscrapers become bigger and more ubiquitous, it seems natural that their internal transit systems would get correspondingly more complex, and borrowing from public transit seems like a perfectly natural way to solve the problem.
Plus, in this system all the elevators are centrally scheduled and therefore there won't be any concern about human drivers fouling up the system :)
- CydeWeys 9y agoI had a chance recently to ask the famous architect David Adjaye what new upcoming technology he thought would change architecture in the coming years, like how steel beams and reinforced concrete allowed the skyscraper innovation from the last century, and his answer was immediate: 3D elevator systems. Apparently traditional linear elevator systems are really limiting as far as what can be accomplished with skyscrapers, to the point that a famous architect sees fully flexible 3D people mover systems inside a building as being the next big innovation to radically change what cities look like.
- closeparen 9y agoInteresting point. Buildings that are very large on the horizontal plane (like the Pentagon) have adopted systems of personal transport like bicycles and Segways. But I guess there's no reason why the elevator model shouldn't work horizontally. Still, elevators in general are more like ridesharing than public transit: they move according to the requests they receive in real time (with some central planning influence), rather than on a schedule set by committee months or years prior.