Flock

Flock provokes the future of verticality.  A service provider that makes elevated space in cities publicly accessible, it allows for communication and self-expression in the sky through murmurations.

In collaboration with: Ryo Tada, Rao Yin, Huiyi Zhang and Kota Isobe.

An increasing number of London’s public spaces are no longer public. The United Kingdom is in the midst of the largest sell-off of common space since the enclosures of the 17th and 18th century and this is occurring in other global cities such as New York and Tokyo. 

Our freedom in the sky is being reduced too.  Large companies are secretly securing exclusive flying rights in cities - making it impossible for the public to fly there.

Thus, the time is now to take ownership of the sky and ensure that it can remain public.

Our first step in making vertical spaces in cities public is to make them accessible.  Through partnerships with local authorities our flying devices, or “Toris”, are allowed to fly in their vertical spaces.  The airspace is then available to anyone who rents one of our Toris. 

Our forms were explored with three things in mind:

• What forms look like they belong in the sky?

• Which forms move away from traditonal flying technology shapes?

• Which forms feel non-threatening.

After extensive interviews and research we settled on a final non-invasive form that would inspire public confidence in flying devices as well as seem non-threatening to viewers.  

We then developed a large steering wheel that utilised a Unity engine and an open source drone to show how the Toris would be deployed in a public space.  This would encourage participation and ownership over the vertical space in that area as well as Flock’s service as a whole.