Dronesphere: Urban Skies

DRONESPHEREURBANSKIES

M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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Simon Rabyniuk M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Daniels Faculty of Architecture University of Toronto s.rabyniuk@mail.utoronto.ca

RESEARCH STATEMENT

No city has confronted a large scale domestic integration of drones in urban skies.

In 2018, both Canada and the United State’s national, regional and municipal regulations, limiting drone use, are poised to change.

This project investigates pressures North American cities may encounter from different uses and inhabitation of urban skies by drones.

What emerging protocols may govern their movement and subsequent uses, as well as how might these suggest new infrastructures and architectural typologies?

M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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KEYWORDS

Dronesphere | Remotely piloted systems (drones), are prosthetic eyes and hands that empower sight and action at a distance. As such, they should not be understood as discrete machines but as nodes within technical, social, political and economic networks. In an age of planetary communication these networks structure equally planetary set of relationships between people, machines, images and places. Far from a homogeneous set of machines, the unique morphologies of drones are the limiting factors to their sphere of intervention.

Urban skies | A conuence of public and private interests claiming inuence over parcels of air. Regulatory bodies, such as the FAA, already govern airspace found above and around airports, as well as higher up. Globally regulators are presently researching how to integrate both micro and macrodrones into their national airspace. Landowners owners, claiming air rights, contest a free and unabated movement above their property.

Aerial Imaginary | Heidegger, in “Building Dwelling Thinking”, argues that a bridge makes the two banks of a river appear. One reading of this is that the application of technology changes human perception of space. As such, the concept of the aerial imaginary proceeds from air gaining a new visibility through the application of technology. Once visible it becomes the subject for projective visions articulating different ideas for its use and inhabitation. The work of different actors, including regulatory agencies, hobbyists, corporations, militaries, think tanks and lawyers articulate competing aerial imaginaries. Strangely quiet from this matrix of concerns is an architectural perspective.

Microdrone | of which DJI’s Phantom series holds a significant place in the popular imagination, stands in contrast. Their technical development matured through hobbyist tinkering starting Post-WW2. Their use of multiple propellers enable vertical take off, but limits their range, elevation, speed and carrying capacity.

Macrodrone | Exemplified by Atomic General’s Predator, were incubated within the culture, aspirations and goals of military for surveillance and weaponized payload delivery. Their fixed wings, which give them the appearance of small airplanes, enable long duration flights at high altitudes and enable a large carrying capacity.

M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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Acronymns | FAA_Federal Aviation Administration UAS_Unmanned Aerial System (United States) UAV_Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Canada) RPS_Remotely Piloted Systemd (International) VLOS_Visual Line of Sight BVLOS_Beyond Visual Line of Sight

Competing Aerial Imaginaries | Drones are not objects but social, technical and political nodes within a networked set of relations.

The work of different actors, including regulatory agencies, hobbyists, startups, corporations, militaries, think tanks and lawyers are presently arguing for competing aerial imaginaries. Strangely quiet from this matrix of concerns is an architectural perspective.

RECREATIONAL MILITARY

COMMERCIAL

Milieu Diagram

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MACRO

FIXED-WING

FIXED-WING

FRONTIER

WASHINGTON DC

SENSOR

MILITARY GOVERNMENT

WEAPON

Wings |

Radio Control |

Aerodrome #5

*1896*

Maker

Produced

Samuel Pierpont Langley

Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane

*1916*

1

Maker

Produced

Duration 90 sec Speed 40 km/hr Elevation 80-100 ft 16.0 m

Sperry Gyroscope Company

Reuse |

CL

*1959*

Pro

Dura Sp Eleva

N/A

Range 160 km Speed 144 km/hr Elevation N/A

0.9

7.6 m

3.5 m

3.0 m

0.9 m

4.5 m 14.8 m

3.7 m

MICRO

FIXED-WING

FIXED-WING

FRONTIER

COMMERCIAL MILITARY GOVERNMENT

GOVERNMENT

Duration |

L-89

*

Maker

oduced

Scale |

i-Gnat

*2002*

General Atomics Systems Inc. N/A

Maker

Produced

ation 70 km peed N/A ation N/A

Delivery Drone

General Atomics Systems Inc. 22

*2016*

Maker

Produced

Duration 48 hrs Speed 192 km/hr Elevation 25,000 ft

Amazon N/A

Duration 16km Speed 80 km/hr Elevation 200-500 ft

9m 1.0 m

10.8 m

.8 m

1.0 m 0.5 m

5.0 m

A set of technical advancements related to drones more than 100 year history

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Privacy Offset

Class G Airspace

Drone Ceiling (Current)

FAA Recreational Regulation | Special Rule for Model Aircraft (Section 336) . Register your model aircraft . Follow community-based safety guidelines . Fly within visual line-of-sight . Fly a drone under 55 lbs. . Never fly near other aircraft . Never fly within 5 miles of an airport . Never fly near emergency response efforts

700’

FAA Commercial Regulation | Small UAS Rule (Part 107) . Register your drone . Get a Remote Pilot Certificate from the FAA . Fly a drone under 55 lbs. . Fly within visual-line-of-sight* . Don’t fly near other aircraft or over people* . Don’t fly in controlled airspace near airports* . Fly only during daylight or civil twilight* . Fly below 400 feet* *FAA waivers available

M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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Entry/Exit

Channels

Lanes

Traffic Study | Modified FAA Regulation Is it coordination or choreography that will organize the possible diversities of speed, direction, density and flow in tomorrow’s urban skies? Regardless, they will be spaces for both anticipated and emergent events.

Channels | Organized by distance of trip from short to long (bottom to top) with speed increasing with elevation

Lanes | Layers of movement set in opposing directions structured similar to Flight Level (Class A) airspace

700’

building height limitation 500’

Threshold

Privacy offsets | 100’ no fly zone offset from buildings Entry/Exit | Access points to rooftops carved into the privacy offset

Thresholds | Interfaces between built form and aerial travel. Starting as grafted structures, with time they may change into new architectural typologies.

M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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Commercial UAS Distribution Patterns | Drone delivery rearticulates the “final mile” for the movement of goods.

Will this be in the service of monopolies or available for peer to peer exchange?

Also, will it be widely distributed, have clearM.Arch centersThesis or be Research mobile itself?

2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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Infrastructure repeats.

The Arlington Memorial Bridge bridges, connecting one side of the Potomac river to the other.

Across a multitude of infinitesimally small moments it renews itself, reperforming the act of bridging.1 ___ The first signs of change came in the form of brightly branded scaffolding-like appendages articulating a new roofline for buildings six to thirty stories. A diverse ecosystem of person to person delivery services came up overnight. Their architecture was provisional: Informal rooftop settlements steeped in the language of prototypes and plug-in adaptability. The interface was immediate. The message was

1. Adapted from Reinhold Martin’s “The Urban Apparatus Mediapolitics and the City” in chapter 10 “Infrastructure and Mediapolitics”.

drone delivery. This new system, encroached on the space of the cell phone tower, using the “rideshare” business model--sans-operator.

Things went on like this for sometime. A tin of cookies, or a quart of AB negative blood, traveled through urban air at 40 miles per hour.

Tastes were satiated and lives were saved, but the drone network was flawed. Drones fell from the sky, had insecure firmware, intruded on people’s privacy and their propellers incessantly droned. Public outcry resulted in more formal structures. The system changed, at least in surficial ways. It took over floors in mixed use towers, but as it didn’t require deep plans, adjacent spaces housed other mechanical systems.

The storage, maintenance, and deployment of drones crowded the exterior, altering the state of the peripheral walls.

The “scaffolding” gave way to whole “floors”, which then gave way to “walls”.

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Oblique Model | Onyx at First, DC’s tallest building constructed in the ‘oughts, offers a site of speculation for architectural artefacts for a future-tense person to person drone delivery service. These speculations graft onto existing structures providing maintenance, storage and deployment spaces for delivery drones.

Airspace | Channels, lanes, privacy offsets, entry/exit points and architectural thresholds: urban air mobility will necessarily render urban airspace tangible.

M.Arch Thesis Research 2018 Simon Rabyniuk

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*Dronesphere Colloquium* 2019/02/16

_Urbanskies Masterclass_ 2019/02/17-22

Simon Rabyniuk Thesis Research 2018

Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design University of Toronto

supported by the Howarth-Wright Fellowship