Smart Trams: A Design Proposal for a City of Interrelation

Abstract

This paper illustrates a case study and the research hypothesis of a project elaborated by the authors for the city of Gwangmyeong in South Korea. The project, which has been developed as a design concept, consists of an innovative public transportation system that aims to favor social integration between parts of the city that might be potentially segregated from each other. Gwangmyeong’s plan fits into the debate on the Broken World, a social and economic condition recognized by many authors as a crucial problem of contemporary society. In this project, the means of transport, along with moving passengers and goods (in addition to waste), also host itinerant collective functions (school, work, etc.) spread in a capillary manner throughout the urban territory. The infrastructure is intended to serve as a social connective tissue of the different city districts. Although conceived in an Eastern context, the design concept is proposed to serve as a model for any new or existing environments in which greater integration is deemed necessary in favor of socially sustainable living conditions.