Audi Urban Future Initiative

THE AUDI URBAN FUTURE INITIATIVE IN NEW YORK, 6TH TO 9TH MAY 2011

The results of the Audi Urban Future Award 2010 were first presented parallel to the 12th Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2010 in the Scuola Grande della Misericordia within a walk-through architectural environment created for the exhibition by Raumlaborberlin, a collective of architects and artists. An international jury selected Jürgen Mayer H. as the winner from among the participating architecture practices whose proposals were exhibited. In May 2011 the four most important theses will be on show in New York in the form of a compact exhibition. The
exhibition will be presented in cooperation with the New Museum in New York and has been integrated into the “Festival of Ideas for a New City“, which is taking place for the first time.

THE CITY OF THE FUTURE WILL BE MANY THINGS AT ONCE – THE MOST
IMPORTANT THESES OF THE AUDI URBAN FUTURE AWARD 2010

01 Free of barriers – Seamless City

The urban mobility of the future will be organized barrier-free to a much greater extent than it is today. In the city centers pedestrians, cyclists, cars and public transport will share the public space that is available to them. Road boundaries, road signs and traffic lights will be superfluous, because all participants in traffic will be electronically networked with each other and each participant’s need for space will be continuously determined. In this way frozen structures in the urban space will come into flow.

02 Owned by its inhabitants – Reconfigured City

Optimized systems of mobility will increasingly permit free areas to emerge within the city. This
will make it possible for the city to grow inwards and for certain areas to become denser. At the same time “green zones” for recreation but also for food production will arise in particular places. Calmed districts will furthermore enable their residents to combine work and leisure pleasantly and to carry out their daily tasks and business in a relaxed manner.

03 Interconnected – Networked City

In the future the city will be characterized to a high degree by different kinds of network. Everything will be connected with everything else by control loops. Automated travel, energy management, personalized electronic systems and digital social networks will play a leading role. This will go hand in hand with a radically changed perception of urban space. In the networked city all participants in traffic will, on the one hand, cooperatively control their interaction, and on the other hand they will all be enabled to create their individual view of the city.

04 A place of neighborly cooperation – Social City

Social interaction will be intensified, because the city of the future will consist of many heterogeneous areas instead of forming a homogeneous unit. New neighborhoods, and new forms of cooperation within these new neighborhoods, will emerge. Be it car sharing, urban gardening or neighborhood assistance, social exchange and common use will take the place of individual ownership in some fields.