FREE (fernando romero): FREE city

‘FREE city’ by FREEall images courtesy of FREE

‘FREE city’ is an urban prototype with a utopian vision designed by mexico city-based practice FREE. the scheme is envisioned to utilize the benefits of radial, hexagonal and rectilinear grids to maintain radial organization, hierarchical zoning and logical growth. the typical block system is superimposed over each sector and hexagonal ring to optimize proximity between locations. an efficient public transit network supports a car-free plan, ensuring residents are never more than an 8 minute walk from a tram station. 

districts are more circular towards the center and more rectangular towards the outer periphery. the centralized overlapping of programmatic areas generatesa vertical urbanism derived by the interlocking of these elements. population growth and urban interactions are developed sustainably and systematically,eliminating wasted land, a current effect of sprawl.

FREE’s urban prototype for building new cities in emerging economies of the 21st century, is on show at the 2nd creativity world biennale as part of the CRio festival from november 21-25, 2012.  

elevated perspective of city

central plaza

FREE cityvideo courtesy of FREE

components of the utopian vision

conceptual diagram of grid

zoning strategy

phasing diagram

city center concept

project info:

design: fernando romero, sérgio rebelo, armando ramos, antonia wai, leonidas trampoukis, ryan kukuraitis, fernando torres, alexander middleton, denis bondar, daniela gallo, mark paz, adrian reifer, olivier brouillard (complexity.fr)environment & infrastructure: byron stigge (buro happold) animation: lucas werthein (super uber), shahar zaks (super uber), molly schwartz (super uber)sound design: liv spencer (still going records) models: michael kennedy (kennedy fabrications), jamie scott (kennedy fabrications) renders: christopher shelley, juan carlos ramos