When eVolo Magazine launched its annual Skyscraper Competition this year, a team of three designers imagined a vertical control terminal for advanced flying drones that would provide personal and commercial services to residents of New York City. The Hive, designed by the U.S. team of Hadeel Ayed Mohammad, Yifeng Zhao, and Chengda Zhu, earned second place.
It’s all in the facade. They’ve designed flickering lights that help with navigation and indicate occupancy percentage. The modules on the facade fit nine different types of drones. The tower provides a safe landing environment through a new method for drones to dock.
Drones land horizontally onto their corresponding platforms; the platform with docked drones can be flipped vertically to be in parallel with the tower facade. Constantly animated, the facade’s platforms “flip outwards and backwards to nest back into it.” Read more here.
