Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs spoke to speculative architect Liam Young about how drones will change cities, the topic of Dezeen's short film Elevation, in a talk at the Building Centre in London.
Fairs and Young talked about the themes covered in the film, new advancements in drone technology since its release, and how this technological growth is changing the landscape of the city.
Young, who appears in the documentary, is co-founder of urban think tank Tomorrow's Thoughts Today. Young also directed the film In the Robot Skies – the first movie to be filmed entirely by autonomous drones.
Elevation sets out a vision for the future exploring how drones are transforming cities, revolutionising how people travel, how goods are delivered and how buildings look and are constructed.
In the film, Young claims that the ubiquity and availability of drones means that they could be "potentially as disruptive as the internet".
Young appears in Elevation, Dezeen's film about how drones will change cities
The documentary also features interviews with Norman Foster, Paul Priestman, Mark Dytham, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Anab Jain, Marina Otero Verzier, Ammar Mirjan, Clemens Weisshaar and Ed Reeve.
Since the film's premiere, several developments in drone technology have been made.
Amazon recently announced that it will start autonomously delivering packages to customers using drones within months. According to Amazon, the Prime Air drone can fly up to 15 miles and deliver packages weighing under 2.2 kilograms to customers in less than 30 minutes.
In February, Istanbul-based firm Melike Altınışık Architects unveiled plans for the Robot Science Museum in Seoul, which will be built using drones and robotic building techniques.
In January of this year, the US aerospace company Boeing successfully tested a prototype of its electric autonomous passenger drone, only a year after its design concept was revealed.
Elevation premiered on 20 May 2018 and was co-directed by Fairs and Dezeen's head of video Oliver Manzi.
It won the bronze award in the Technology Video category at the 2018 Lovie Awards, as well as the People's Lovie Award. A sister awards programme to the Webby Awards, the Lovie Awards celebrate the best content on the internet.
Dezeen hosts and livestreams talks and panel discussions from around the world. Recent examples include a talk with Italian architect Piero Lissoni about his designs for B&B Italia and a conversation with Arthur Mamou Mani about his bioplastic installation for COS.