Robodistricts

▷ Consolidate robo land use to improve resource performance and improve the condition of the human districts.

As more of the economy is automated, there will be more pressure to build warehouses and other non-human land uses. Rather than see this as a threat, it should be considered as an opportunity for optimization.

How could a human-scale neighborhood could benefit from an offsite supporting robodistrict, and what would that robodistrict would look like? Supporting infrastructure is already typically pushed out of the human-habitable part of the community, think wastewater treatment plants, solid waste collection and processing, power generation, logistics, manufacturing, and other classically industrial uses. as the number of automated services rises, there will be more pressure on land uses close to neighborhoods. For example, so-called ghost kitchens supplying the need for push button food delivery have moved into vacant commercial spaces or even shipping containers in parking garages.

Characteristics of robo land use

I expect the market will want to build facilities for autonomous last mile delivery and garages for autonomous vehicles. The common denominator is that these land uses:

• Large, blank buildings
• Lots of trip generation
• Want to be close to population centers

Industrial ecology potential of robo districts

Material handling, fusing inputs (waste) and outputs (consumer goods).

Waste heat reuse (see article on data centers)