Designing a 'Drone Proof' City

By Greg Scoblete
February 04, 2013

A student's take on a 'drone proof' city.

While the U.S. has pioneered the use of armed drones in warfare, other states are scrambling to catch up. A world of proliferating drones has security experts and civil libertarians grappling for ways to cope.

One novel idea, courtesy of Asher Kohn, is to design a "drone-proof" city. This high-tech concept features buildings with no consistent external layout, so as to render mapping difficult. It uses "smart windows" with multicolor glass to make seeing inside buildings considerably harder. The entire city would have a roof and thus a uniform temperature, making personal heat signatures harder to trace and on-the-ground visibility impossible.

You can get a more detailed description of Kohn's 'Shura City' here. The name, Kohn said, was inspired by the Quetta Shura -- the organization run by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Reading through Kohn's architectural musings, I have to imagine that Omar and others on the receiving end of drone strikes can't be that heartened by it, as none of this is remotely easy to build.

(Image: Asher Kohn)

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