Idea contributed by Dianne Dunnell. Kent Larson from MIT Media Lab was this years’ keynote speaker at the Annual IFMA Awards event held at the Renaissance Hotel on 5-26-11. His group are leading innovators involved in studying ways to change & better society.One of their R&D projects includes the development of the CityCar.

The CityCar is an electric automobile with a folding chassis. (See photo below) During the presentation, Kent had shared a google map and highlighted the high percentage of parking lots within the selected city. He then noted the CityCar has a 3:1 parking ratio compared to conventional vehicles due to the compact folding characteristic of the CityCar. This would allow developers to only construct 1/3 of the parking spaces compared to what is typically required, purchase CityCars for their parking garage, give the Citycars away to the tenants (which becomes an incentive for tenants to lease commercial space from them.) and still save money compared to providing a traditional parking garage.

Learn more. http://cities.media.mit.edu/

Tags: Architects Boston, Architectural Firms Boston, CityCar, Dianne Dunnell, IFMA, Interior Design Firms Boston, Kent Larson, Margulies Perruzzi Architects, MIT, MIT Media Lab, MPA, parking

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