| About Graft |
| Project | VoloPort |
| Architects | Graft |
| Project partners | Georg Schmidthals, Lars Krückeberg, Wolfram Putz, Thomas Willemeit |
| Project lead | Sebastian Massmann |
| Design lead | Marta Piaseczynska |
| Project team | Julia Korpacka, Tatiana Lebedeva |
| Year | 2021: Commission for VoloPort together with Arup and Bayards Aluminium Constructies 2019: First prototype built in Singapore by GRAFT Brandlab 2018: Competition, 1st prize, together with GRAFT Brandlab and Arup |
Description by designers
The German eVTOL design company Volocopter is a pioneer of Urban Air Mobility and develops fully electric vertical take-off aircraft as a mobility solution for use in urban areas. As a hub for the Volocopter aircraft, the VoloPort vertiport was devised by GRAFT in collaboration with Volocopter, Arup and Bayards Aluminium Constructies.
The VoloPort is part of the Volocopter modular urban air mobility infrastructure network and acts as a gateway within the public realm. Suited to the constraints of densely populated areas, its compact, modular and expandable design can be employed in a variety of inner-city locations – either on the ground, on the roof of a high-rise building or on a floating, water-based platform.
The exterior of the VoloPort features dynamic lines in horizontal, vertical, and diagonal planes. By connecting earth and sky, this gesture inspires passengers to anticipate the experience of flight, while the distinctive lighting concept will make it into an easily recognizable landmark atop of skyscrapers, parking garages and floating platforms. Retaining all key design elements across all configurations and sizes, the fully functional, branded unit incorporates all necessary passenger services and aircraft operations, such as battery swapping and charging, elevating platforms for maintenance, and fire detection and rescue. The VoloPort is tailored to act as a hub for the VoloCity and VoloConnect aircraft, and may also accommodate other aircraft.
The design of the VoloPort allows for different configurations, enabling adaptability to regulatory changes.
Vertiports in the Urban Environment by EASA
Vertiport Design Standards for eVTOL/UAM Vehicles by FAA
Each unit can be configurated on a single level or on multiple levels. Multiple level units are arranged into three elements that divide different functions: the plinth, the terminal, and the platform. The plinth is of varying heights and is designed to distribute loads according to the specific location, especially when sited on constrained decks or existing constructions. The terminal is connected to the FATO (Final Approach and Take-Off) platform on the upper deck by a perforated material that allows sufficient air flow to prevent turbulence. Both the terminal units and the platform are made from pre-assembled lightweight modules.
While the VoloPort offers an expandable, network-ready modular vertiport solution for dense urban areas, it can also be employed next to transport terminals in rural locations.
About GRAFT
GRAFT is conceived as a studio for architecture, urban planning, design, music and the pursuit of happiness. Since its establishment 1998 in Los Angeles, it has been commissioned to design and manage a wide range of projects across multiple disciplines and in numerous locations. Further offices followed in Berlin in 2001 and Beijing in 2004.
We believe in the power of architecture as a tool, best employed not for its own sake, but to represent ambiguous and diverse identities.
Although the company’s core enterprises gravitate around the field of architecture and the built environment, GRAFT has always maintained an interest in crossing the boundaries between disciplines and “grafting” the creative potential and methodologies of different realities. This is reflected in its expansion into the fields of exhibition and product design, art installations and academic projects, as well as in their variety of project locations around the world.
In 2014, we set up GRAFT Brandlab, an agency enabling an additional focus on communication design, brand strategy and consultancy while staying true to the original multidisciplinary approach and working methods.
Architecture is a cultural technique. It is never self-contained, nor finite; it is part of a complex cultural cycle in service of society as a whole. As a result, architecture is always a representation of society rather than an autonomous discipline. The importance of identity within designed space, from individual to community, from city to region, cannot be underestimated. At a time when there is a blurring of boundaries between the real and the virtual, urban and rural, and local and global, our built environment plays a fundamental role in defining identity.
GRAFT is responding to the challenges of the future with an optimistic attitude towards multiple and simultaneous identities, which enables a higher degree of complexity. There is no such thing as one single truth, and we believe that hybridization enhances the qualities of its constituent characteristics.
Our design process is evidence-based and human-centered. Our approach stems from scenography and movement rather than tectonics. In this way, we are able to create dynamic, flexible architecture that allows multiple readings.
Our work features designs for projects in the fields of residential and commercial architecture, health care, mobility, digitization, work, branding, master planning and urban culture, all of which graft different realities into new hybrids.
With projects in more than 30 countries, our work as well as our employees are truly international. Our team of about 100 architects, interior designers, communication experts and administrative staff works from offices in Berlin, Los Angeles and Shanghai.
Besides GRAFT’s architectural work the company also acts as a catalyst for socially impactful initiatives. GRAFT collaborates with leading entrepreneurs in different fields to establish long lasting solutions for the future – as a continuous effort for tackling problems of the 21st century.
In 2007, together with Brad Pitt, Bill McDonough and the Cherokee Foundation, GRAFT established the Make It Right Foundation, whose objective was the rebuilding of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward after Hurricane Katrina. GRAFT’s self-initiated projects also include SOLARKIOSK, a company founded with the German lawyer Andreas Spies in 2009 to bring clean energy, connectivity and solar products to rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa. And, in 2015, GRAFT co-founded Heimat2, which aims to bring dignified housing solutions to refugees in Europe.
| Address | Heidestrase 50, 10557 Berlin, Germany |
| Phone | +4930306451030 |
| Website | http://www.graftlab.com/ |
VoloPort Concept - Modular eVTOL Vertiport - Departure and Arrival Facility for Air Taxis and Drones