When it comes to the movie "Alita: Battle Angel", in addition to being impressed by the stunning visual effects, I think many people will not forget this place - the aerial city of Salem.
▲Image from: Douban
In fact, in many movies and televisions, you can see cities floating in the air, and these cities in the air are often symbols of utopia. It also makes many people have this imagination: what if the future can really live in the air city.
Andreas Tjeldflaat, a designer at Framlab's research and design studio, started a design research project called "Oversky".
▲ Image from: Framlab
Tjeldflaat envisions a modular system that can float in the air, exploring new urban infrastructure systems and new urban spaces, such as above gaps between urban roads and buildings.
This modular system, which is based on the Zeppelin, is also the core of the "Oversky" module. Tjeldflaat uses a rigid carbon fiber frame to create a light and rugged housing for helium batteries, believing that this is a system based on a proven technological infrastructure.
▲ Image from: Framlab
In addition, in addition to a series of different infrastructure connections, the "Oversky" modular system also includes five modules that connect the streetscape below with the "cloudscape" above, and use a three-dimensional structure to broaden the space for people in the city to move.
The reason why these floating modules are called "cloudscapes" is because it is the "clouds" and the increasing heat island effect in the city that inspired designer Tjeldflaat.
▲ Image from: Framlab
In hot weather, cities full of asphalt roads are "steel forests" lined with buildings that retain more heat than in the suburbs. In order to cool down, people turn on the air conditioner indoors in unison, so more greenhouse gases are released, and the city's climate seems to have entered a vicious circle.
Complex and changeable clouds reflect solar radiation to make the surface less hot. With this model, the modular system in "Oversky" is designed to reflect heat back into the air with little to no radiation absorption, maintaining much lower surface temperatures than the surrounding environment.
▲ Image from: Framlab
The researchers' tests proved that solar panels placed in direct sunlight are still 4.9 degrees Celsius below the air temperature, which means that the system has a cooling capacity of 40.1 watts per square meter.
The geometry of this structure also transports and collects rainwater, and with the help of a circulating cooling system, the water can be circulated internally through a thin pipe network. Water is also released in the form of a fine mist at the bottom of the building, and by evaporative cooling, the clouds can dissipate the extra heat in the streets.
▲ Image from: Framlab
In addition, the titanium dioxide coating allows the outer surface to clean the air by decomposing pollutants in the air. The geometry below is designed for another type of pollution – to absorb traffic noise from the road below.
"Oversky" may seem like a "castle in the sky" research project, but the use of passive technology to cool our cities is a bold attempt to explore zero emissions, and it also integrates the activity space of urban residents.
▲ Image from: Framlab
Maybe one day, we can really see such an aerial city.