The local government of Calabria, Southern Italy, is developing a plan to transform the many unfinished bridges on its A3 Autostrada motorway into vertical cities of the future.
Despite 50 years of developments, the 300 mile stretch of road between Salerno and Reggio Calabria has been affected by governmental mismanagement and remains mostly incomplete.
Manal Rachdi of Oxo Architects presented the idea of turning the highway’s concrete bridges and overpasses into a series of vertically stacked neighborhoods.
Inverting the standard high-rise concept, the idea would see the top of the bridge serve as a road from where people would enter the building and go down to get to the apartments, shops and offices built into the bridge’s support structures.
According to Rachidi’s proposal, power for the Vertical Village is expected to come from geothermal energy, courtesy of a nearby volcano.
The challenge facing the Calabrian government at the moment is finding the funds to build such a project, in a region that is struggling economically.
Courtesy FastCo Exist
