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Island
Island is a double-decker driverless tram designed for the city of Hong Kong for the post-Covid era.
The highly innovative project, brainchild of the brilliant Italian designer Andrea Ponti, incorporates industrial design, transport design, public design, urban mobility and sustainability and includes the design of outdoor, indoor and tram stops.
With the Coronavirus pandemic, people prefer to avoid public transport and rely on private transport.
The goal of this project is precisely to reinvent public transport, adapt it to the post-Covid era in a perspective of prevention, necessary for a densely populated city like Hong Kong, where social distancing is difficult to sustain.
Furthermore, as many will already know, trams are one of the symbols of the city of Hong Kong and this year will celebrate the 115th anniversary of their introduction in the city.introduzione in città.
The name Island refers to the innovative interior design, where large circular benches facilitate social distancing and passengers sit facing outwards in a radial pattern.
The exterior design is inspired by the Hong Kong cityscape, characterized by vast surfaces of glass and buildings with rounded corners.
Natural light floods the interior during the day through the curved windows and domed top, which offer stunning views of the city at night.
Driverless technology optimizes the interior space of the tram, facilitating the management of travel times and increasing safety on board.
The simple structure of the tram stop is designed to facilitate distancing: being open on both sides, it facilitates a linear and orderly flow of people and a healthier environment.
The graphic indications guide passengers through the boarding and payment process before boarding, simplifying the flows to board and optimizing the space available insidenterno.
Island represents the far-sighted spirit of Hong Kong and introduces a new concept of public transport that goes beyond the simple practice of social distancing and plans to reinvent the concepts of sharing and sociability.
As Andrea Ponti himself suggests, we should not divide and separate, but rather rethink public spaces with a continuous, integrated and effective design approach.
© images: Andrea Ponti – https://www.andreaponti.com/island.html
