MICRO
LOGISTICS
Concepts
DPSDD
Urban Hybrids
Data-informed speculative concepts for electric mobility, urban tourism and small-scale logistics.
Concept Research at DPSDD
MICROLOGISTICS investigates the typological hybridisation of future electric urban mobility, bringing together vehicles, furniture, service devices and small-scale logistics. Scooters become compact cargo systems, while sofas and other domestic typologies evolve into autonomous platforms for short-distance transportation. Situated between personal mobility and public infrastructure, these concepts address different contexts of use—from tourism and urban exploration to the movement of goods—within slower, denser and increasingly human-centred cities.
The concepts originate from an analysis of cultural, technological and urban development trends, including electrification, autonomous systems, shared mobility and the growth of last-mile logistics. Rather than attempting to predict a single future, the project translates these emerging signals into speculative yet plausible design scenarios. Transformable geometries, integrated tools and hybrid functions are explored as ways of reducing congestion, optimising urban space and supporting more adaptable forms of mobility responding to ecological constraints and changing everyday behaviours.
Developed by Ate Rote as part of Roberto Rota’s research at the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering of the University of the Aegean, MICROLOGISTICS examines the application of data analysis and generative design to creative ideation processes. Mobility data, technological trajectories and socio-cultural trends provide an analytical foundation from which generative tools can produce unexpected typological combinations. Artificial intelligence is therefore used not to automate design decisions, but as a heuristic instrument for expanding the field of possibilities and identifying configurations worthy of further investigation.
