Recently, SAAN proposed to learn from the famous Futurama concept to a client when designing the functional flow system within the logistics area of a large air cargo hub. SAAN used a multi-strata system for cargo and people flow in this mega hub to facilitate a seamless operation during peak and off-season. This model bears ideological roots to the Futurama structure created 81 years ago at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. 

Benefiting from the rapid development of the U.S. economy in those years, industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes designed the Futurama ride at the 1939 New York World’s Fair as a model of the possible future city with automated highways and elaborate suburbs. It illustrated America as a place with interconnected highways on every possible terrain to allow for the free movement of people and goods within America as a prerequisite for growth and prosperity, rendering this ideal city of the future with symbols of humanity, technology, harmony, and eternity.

Futurama was created on the eve of the Second World War about the future of city building, and how prescient it is to revisit it now. Looking back on this proud New York World’s Fair against the backdrop of today’s pandemic, we see once again the hope for progress and the added confidence to create a utopian future.