SRME. Silk Road Map
Evolution is a project born out of the will to revive and regenerate the current
layout of the silk road. This is to be accomplished by means of a social,
economic, political and architectonic redevelopment of the historic stretch of
the road that once belonged to Marco Polo.
The project deeply
integrates infrastructure with architecture and by means of a new railway
system functioning on gravitational platforms follows the trail from Venice to
Xian, Shanghai and Tokyo, extending its "arms" to create new
infrastructures, commercial services and residences.

A wiry MOTOR CITY
extends itself to help out urban realities and struggling economies. The
(linearly) diffused city runs into other micro-cities in such a way that the
greater entity hooks onto the smaller ones to help them survive and, like an
economic pump, extends life from the greater nodes to the smaller and poorer
extremities. The 15,000 km of the silk road shall be broken up by bionic towers
which will represent the centers of new urban sprawls. The new silk road line
will also serve as the GENERATOR of other paths that will branch off of the
main course of the road to develop a larger economic armature.

The studio driven
towards the development of the SRME was created following an attentive analysis
of the actual condition of the city on a global level. The common problem of
large contemporary cities is that of congestion of circulation. This is a
natural consequence of demographic expansion, a phenomenon that can be defined
as explosive considering the exponential trend that manifested in the 20th
century. The "classic" urban structure of cities developed
concentrically around a central nucleus is no longer capable of resolving the
problematic issues of traffic and pollution. As a result, the model of an ideal
city will evolve, placing emphasis on MOBILITY and creating an environment in
which displacements are reduced to a minimum and sustainable means of transport
are implemented. The key issues of the innovative project of mobility are
therefore the growing mechanization of displacements and the abandon of
personal vehicles.

SRME offers a
response to problems of mobility by sustaining a new model of urbanization that
goes beyond urbanism itself. This is developed along an axis of indefinite
length, comprised of a vital artery that in turn gives life to minor urban
organisms.
LINEARITY AND
THREE-DIMENSIONALITY are the driving forces of this cultural and technical
venture for cities of the future. Following this new model which can be
categorized within SPATIAL URBANISM, the city will no longer be thought of as
an isolated organism. It will instead be integrated with others along a system
of ligaments that creates a real and proper URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE in which
circulation exists both horizontally and vertically.

Silk Road Map
Evolution will become a global city for the future, made up of extra long
tunnels and highly sustainable and habitable towers of various forms. These
small livable worlds will be organized in vertical and circular skyscrapers
whose forms will be dictated by their internal functions and by their relationship
with the railway system and the natural world. The fundamental goal of this
innovative project of the spatial city is that of reducing to a minimum the
percentage of soil disrupted for construction and urban structures. This also
addresses the problems of architectonic development in large metropolises as
well as overpopulation and increasing demographics of existing cities. Marginal
suburbs and peripheral cities which cause great social problems will
disappear.

From an architectonic
and urban point of view, SRME is made up of two urban, ecological integrated
systems. The first element, that of the towers, is composed of three different
types of skyscrapers which will rise to a median height of 400 meters. The
second element, that of the railway system, is made up of the main path of the
silk road as well as a new line of commercial and public transport with trains
that travel on polarized gravitational fields uniting the Orient with the
Occident. The external skin of the entire project is composed of an innovative
system made up of a cement based on titanium dioxide. This significantly
reduces atmospheric disturbance and thanks to a particular synthetic chlorophyl
generates a photocatalytic reaction that produces clean air for a quantity
equal to 500 liters of oxygen a day for every 200 square meters of
surface. An unprecedented energy system is also placed on the inside of
the train tracks. This is composed of various piezoelectric panels integrated
into the tracks which capture energy created by waves of pressure resulting
from train traffic and transform it into electricity.