With the rising success of electric cars and the highly anticipated introduction of self-driving cars, it is beginning to look like the 'end of the automobile age' which many predicted just a few years ago may never come. This was the sentiment presented by Audi CEO Rupert Stadler at the presentation of the Audi Urban Future Award last night: "The car has to be seen once again as a desirable object of progress," he demanded. "To achieve this, we have to tear down the walls between infrastructure, public transportation and individual traffic." Audi's New Urban Agenda therefore sets its sights on "solutions in which individual transportation makes a positive contribution in an overall system of different forms of mobility."
The award, which saw Team Mexico City win with their proposal to crowd source up-to-the-minute traffic data which informs traffic planning decisions, highlights the relationship between cars, urban planning and ultimately architecture. "We have left mobility to the transportation experts for too many decades," says Jose Castillo, a Harvard Professor and leader of Team Mexico City. "Nowadays thinking about urban space and infrastructure, this is something that architects have a lot to say about."
Check out our video from the event above, where we asked participants from each of the four teams to outline in their view "why should architects be concerned about mobility?"
