COURSE & LECTURES
FUTURE MOBILITY
SYLLABUS
The course aims to explore how future technologies can shape the interactions between humans and machines, focusing on cognitive sensations, spatial perceptions, and imagined emotions in relation to mobility patterns and tools. Throughout the studies, the biotic relationship between humans and machines, envisioned within the framework of the future city paradigm, will be evaluated. Furthermore, the course will propose anthropoid-like interactions with future mobility tools, addressing life’s needs, the drive for movement, speed, and form.
In parallel with studies on future mobility, projects will analyze contemporary transportation networks as habitats, artificial infrastructures, and organisms. These projects will examine the interrelations and qualities of vehicles in their interactions with inhabitants. The process will emphasize collaborative expression and synergistic exploration, alongside emotional and sensory experiences, to inspire profound reflections on new forms of future mobility.
The Art of Mobility
This subtopic invites students to blend their artistic expressions while examining abstract landscapes and forms of future mobility. Students will be responsible for documenting and presenting their design process in the final proposal, utilizing diverse communication tools and methods as needed.
Future Mobility
This survey course combines theoretical lectures delivered by the instructor with individual applied projects created by the students. Students are expected to attend classes regularly, take notes, and actively participate in discussions. The final evaluation will be based on attendance (20%), midterm grades (40%), and the final exam and applied project assessments (40%).
COURSE SCHEDULE - 4 hours per week
(Applied project review per pro each week)
Week Subject
1 The technological and socio-cultural progress toward future mobility
2 The intersection of mobility, architecture, and the city platform
3 Sensuous and semiotic norms connecting mobility and architecture
4 The movement and morphological perception of humans
5 The transformation of human-to-machine interfaces
6 The future city paradigm: seamless transitions between space and movement
7 Environmental and global issues in future transportation
8. Midterm
9 Semantic connections between city, road, and natural flow
10 The fundamental principles of form, function, and structure in vehicle design
11 Motion as the pro-thesis of space; new determinants of urban space
12 An unavoidable and irrepressible gratification: speed as a phenomenon
13 Mobile Revolution: the city itself as a utopian place
14 Pro-activating the "Life on the Move" concept
15 No class (Design Presentation Week)
PREFACE
New technologies and evolving needs are redefining vehicle architecture, transforming cars into the digital era with enhanced human-to-machine interfaces for innovative mobility experiences. This course aims to explore new transportation paradigms to identify additional functions vehicles might adopt to promote mobility for future generations. It envisions an innovative interaction between humans and machines, reimagining vehicles as architectural units that allow individuals to better express their senses and emotions within a personalized comfort zone. The course’s experimental framework reflects future life patterns and configurations, fostering stronger physical and psychological connections between people and vehicles in a spatial context.
Moving beyond traditional vehicle typologies, often designed with fixed functionality, the course proposes blending vehicles and their features to achieve maximum customization, adaptability, and deeper integration between humans and machines. Vehicles are approached not merely as mechanical entities but as sensuous and semiotic archetypes. Studies will focus on open platforms emphasizing variable, modular, transformable, transmorphable, programmable, flexible, and adaptable design elements. These platforms will aim to reshape vehicles around users’ needs and accessibility, enabling them to spend more time on what truly matters. Additionally, advancements in material construction will play a pivotal role, erasing distinctions between vehicle interiors and exteriors, as well as virtual and physical spaces, to create intuitive, natural user experiences.
Throughout the course, the exploration of new vehicle architectures will include design methodologies such as modularity, adjustability, flexibility, and innovations in self-transformation, self-healing, self-programming, and self-shaping materials. These elements will be assessed for their ability to adapt vehicle morphology to meet diverse user needs, whether stationary or in motion. The final outcomes will integrate these new morphological principles with the "life on the move" concept, illustrating how future transportation systems can enhance everyday life by creating vital connections between vehicles, architecture, and urban platforms. This approach aims to monitor and respond to human senses, emotions, and patterns effectively.
The course also seeks to introduce new structural and symbolic typologies alongside aesthetic values for future vehicles, striving to bring the outside world into the vehicle in an organic and meaningful way. By doing so, it empowers users to engage more dynamically with their surroundings, fostering a harmonious relationship between mobility, architecture, and the city.
OBJECTIVES
. Introduce the fundamentals of car design through a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating architecture, urban design, material engineering, ergonomics, product design, and performance, with an emphasis on environmental sustainability and social awareness. Attention will also be given to technological and production constraints.
. Integrate the design process into new experiential concepts, redefining the architectural structures of cars, and establishing new criteria for efficiency and future responsibilities.
. Complement theoretical and conceptual training with studio projects, guiding students through design concepts and their refinement, culminating in digital modeling.
. Explore micro- and macro-mobility systems that respond to emerging city typologies, critically examining today’s transportation and vehicle design paradigms in light of environmental issues, global economic trends, and evolving social structures.
. Investigate progressive transportation concepts to challenge conventional mobility scenarios, envisioning a future where cars are no longer indispensable actors.
. Foster awareness and sensitivity toward future challenges, while enhancing the ability to select and apply appropriate design research methods for thoughtful and innovative outcomes.
OUTCOMES
. Develop an awareness of how to transfer research insights into various projects, particularly within the domains of car and transportation design.
. Gain familiarity with the different stages of the design process, including hypothetical discussions, debriefing, and project conceptualization. This will be achieved through case studies of future mobility scenarios, design evolutions, and analyses focusing on social structures, art, and architectural influences.
. Acquire knowledge of transportation design history and its evolution, complementing theoretical and practical design practices. Emphasis will be placed on design methodologies, vehicle architecture, and technological advancements within the broader context of mobility and car culture.
. Encourage students to think beyond constraints, transforming a result-driven approach into conceptual projects that emphasize time management and continuous progression.
. Learn to structure projects and utilize a variety of techniques, including collages, diagrams, storyboards, prototypes, simulations, videos, and photography.
. Cultivate the flexibility to question existing typologies and incorporate insights from the research process into project development, not solely for the final outcome but as an integral part of the creative journey.
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Presented works in order:
H.Furkan Şenoğlu, Rümeysa Akyol, Selin Tüysüz, Talha Uçar, Fatih Eken
