The project started with a study of existing conditions and future possibilities for the neighborhood of Somerville. A analysis on how the society will change from a traditional lifestyle, irregular work-leisure time to a more flexible, sharing society. Similarly how will the existing Built-environment and mobility change with the innovation and technological changes expected.

The main question was raised about ‘how can mobility influence the urban planning process in Somerville?’

After all the background research and the main question the vision was developed for the the neighborhood “the transformation from a traditional neighborhood to a decentralized innovation district”.

Two category of traffic flows were identified.

The crossing flow was something that cannot be controlled but managed and optimized using intelligent traffic systems,resulting into a fluent flow of traffic.

More attention was given to the commuter traffic which was directly related to the neighborhood. The focus was on reducing the on road parking and changing the pattern of movement from a vehicular pattern to a more human pattern. The proposal was to design a network of one central super hub and a network of mini hubs spread out all over Somerville. The result would be freeing up all the on road parking, also the parking lots existing

The Vision:

The vision for this project is to design a space,initially with parking as the primary function. But which later adapts to the particular neighborhood and becomes a community space with hybrid facilities, innovation center and multi mode transport system.

UHUB is a project of IaaC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia developed at Master in City and Technology in 2016 by:
Student: Chiara Dall’Olio, Caglar Gokbulut, Mohit Chaugule
Faculty: Lisa Füting, Christian Gärtner, Kathrin DiPaola, Julius Streifeneder