A pod city is one in which all buildings over one story in height are levitated. This permits hoverships to sail under the buildings without lowering their sailfins. Because the buildings do not form obstructions at ground level, a pod city does not have distinct streets, but rather has one continuous traffic area. This lack of obstruction allows hoverships to tack or to make large-radius turns, both of which are essential to a hovership's ability to maneuver and are a major reason why they are not normally used in built-up urban areas.
In addition to this feature, a pod city also has a force lattice at one story height. The force lattice is a network of force lines that have been modified to interact with hoverpods. The force lattice serves as a virtual ground, keeping hoverships off the real ground so that they do not collide with pedestrians.
While these features alone can be considered to comprise the definition of a pod city, the type of pod city popularized by the Srothi has a number of addition features, giving it a highly distinctive character and appearance.
Srothi pod cities consist of two types of buildings: teardrop-shaped skyscrapers, and felt tents. Most of the tents serve as lobbies for skyscrapers above them, to which they are connected by means of televators. This arrangement is chosen because it allows the cities to relocate easily; the tents can be folded up, whereas the towers are relatively streamlined when turned on their side. Each tower is capped with a slotted onion dome containing a vertical-axis windmill; this provides power for the building access televator, as well as smaller televators to pump groundwater into the building to provide running water. The towers are supported by a combination of hoverpods and force lines; the force lines connect each building to a heavy anchor to prevent it from moving by accident.
The entire city is then surrounded by a massive wall of field stabilized earthworks. This allows the city to be both mobile and well-protected, as the wall can be created from locally available materials; the force field generators can be removed when the city is ready to move and re-installed when a new wall is constructed. The wall is defended by turrets based on a similar design to the towers inside the city, but with the tips pointing down instead of up. Several large gates provide access through this wall; these gates are the most difficult part of the city to transport, as they are the only part that does not either fold up or levitate.