Architecture firm MVRDV has collaborated with aircraft manufacturer Airbus to research how landing hubs for passenger drones, called vertiports, could become part of transportation networks in future cities.
The report, called Urban Air Mobility (UAM) City Integration, focused on how vertiports could serve aerial vehicle technology and supplement existing transport networks.
Vertiports for drones could slot into the urban landscape of Sao Paulo
MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas said he imagines "a city where my mobility is at my balcony!"
"As cities become denser and technologies improve, it becomes increasingly clear that the truly three-dimensional city ? one that includes flying vehicles ? is surely one of the city models of the future," added Maas. Vertiports could help people fly above roads in Los Angeles
Airbus currently operates Voom, an on-demand helicopter booking platform, and is developing an autonomous air taxi passenger drone that runs on electricity.
The Dutch architecture studio looked at how vertiports could integrate aerial and terrestrial transport links in cities around the world including Shenzhen, Jakarta, Sao Paolo, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
MVRDV imagined one scenario where people arrive at Coachella by passenger drone
One case study looked at how passenger drones could take people to the Coachella music festival.
Others looked at how tourist destinations could be linked up in Shenzhen, or fly above traffic in Los Angeles.
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