A law student who believes “architecture against drones is not just a science-fiction scenario but a contemporary imperative,” has put together some foundational thoughts and designs for how a city might be built to protect its citizens from drones and surveillance. 

               Depiction of drone-resistant city by Asher Kohn. 

“The successful check against the machines is not a daydream but an inevitability, and the quicker more creative solutions are proposed, the more likely such answers can be disseminated widely and kept from the patent-wieldinghands of some offshore-utopian type,” Kohn writes in his report on what he calls “Shura City.” 

The United States’ recent history with drone surveillance and attacks is the spark for Kohn’s thinking. “American jurisprudence is simply not capable of making clear, comforting, adjudications on drones and thesorts of crimes they have been created to deter.”  He calls his proposal “a setting-off point for discussions on proper defense and on what ‘proper defense’ might mean.” 

PopSci has a good summary of Shura’s seven key protective features, from its towers and “windcatchers” to “smart windows.”  And theatlanticcities.com has a takeout on Kohn’s thinking that is well worth a read.