“The mobility of the future will be more diverse, smarter, more shared, cleaner and greener. Cities must again be there for people, not cars, protecting the environment,” says Belgian-born, Paris-based architect Vincent Callebaut who seeks to reinvent the automobile and transport sector with Timber Mobilities, a range of 5 prototype vehicles designed for “peaceful and ecological mobility on land, in the air and on the water”.
Designed by a team of 5 architects at Vincent Callebaut Architectures using AI assistance, the five prototypes combine ergonomic architecture with a biomimetic design, renewable energy (solar, biohydrogen, green micro-algae), and a mix of bio-based materials (cross laminated timber and engineered bamboo) and recycled materials (recycled aluminium and fibreglass) to showcase a vision of the mobility of the future.
The five imaginative vehicles include the hydrofoil – a ferry boat; VTOL bus - a flying bus; shuttle – a public transport vehicle; bike – a light bicycle; and car – an autonomous vehicle for city driving.
Timber Hydrofoil
To relieve traffic congestion in coastal and river towns while reducing the carbon footprint of our travels, the challenge for architects today is to succeed in designing more rational electric flying boats, says Callebaut.
Hydrofoil boats help prevent loss of speed by removing friction and wave drag from the hull, raising it and keeping it in balance out of the water, thanks to the lift of a set of profiled and submerged wings called foils. The design allows higher speeds with reduced fuel consumption, making them ideal for offshore racing, sport catamarans, or intercity passenger boats.
“The objective is to offer passengers peaceful navigation, without jolts above the waves, and to use the equivalent of 0.1 kWh of electricity per passenger/km to design ships that are more ecological than an electric bus.”
Timber VTOL Bus
Designed for urban air mobility, the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft aims to change current autonomous air transport concepts based on limited passenger capacities by supporting a larger number of passengers, between 10 and 20 people, at fixed times on urban lines.
“The concept is to reduce travel times in the city or between cities, while reducing the pressure on public transport on the ground to alleviate road traffic. To be truly greener than a land vehicle and have a climate benefit, the flying bus must cover a relatively long distance and carry enough passengers.”
Timber Shuttle
“In the world of tomorrow, the space given to cars will not be as large as it is today,” observes Callebaut. More traffic lanes will gradually give way to autonomous shuttles capable of interlocking and being able to be connected to each other, thus creating buses without drivers.
Loaded with sensors and computerised functions, connected and autonomous shuttles promise safety, energy and time savings, tranquillity, and entertainment.
Connected shuttles represent a true hybridisation of an individual car and public transport – ergonomic and open to the outside – and will be specially equipped to accommodate a dozen travellers.
Timber Bike
Many urban cities offer dedicated bike lanes to free up traffic lanes, limit pollution and encourage a healthier way of mobility.
Callebaut’s bike is lighter with new hybrid structures, half in cross-laminated wood and half in graphene, which has very good conductivity, and is conducive to incorporating even more artificial intelligence and connectivity.
Timber Car
The 2030 target to reduce CO2 emissions and achieve climate neutrality by 2050 signals the end of heavy steel SUVs and paves the way for the adoption of agile and autonomous wooden city cars.
Made of engineered wood, and operating on electric and/or solar, this automated vehicle could become one of the greenest concept cars around.
“It is the interdisciplinarity of our modes of transport that will allow us to build a resilient and sustainable ecosystem of mobility,” concludes Callebaut.
