Futuristic Cities past and present

[Andy44]

(This was a longer post but my browser hiccupped and I lost it...:beathead

I've been reading a book an architect friend recommended called "Cosmopolis, Yersterday's Cities of Tomorrow" and it's a fascinating read of the "retrofuture". I've always been interested in the idea of high-tech cities, like Neo Tokyo from the movie Akira, or even ugly ones like future Los Angeles from Bladerunner.

What are your ideas for the "ideal" future city? Do you think they'd really work? What cities from fiction or real life do you find fascinating?

---------- Post added at 02:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 AM ----------

One idea that used to seem cool and then later horrified me is the "arcology", which is basically a giant self-contained city in one building. Imagine a skyscraper several times the floorspace of the Emire State Building with everything the average person needs to live their entire life in it. Dwellings, workspace, supplies, entertainment, everything.

This idea was proposed as a means to prevent sprawl and allow (aka "force") more people to occupy less land area. It's still a compelling idea today as our population rises.

Note the diagram of the Empire State Building for scale!

Somebody wants to build this in New Orleans:

Reading "The World Inside" by Robert Silverberg, as well as "Oath of Fealty" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, has soured me on the idea of living in such a community, although I have no problem with large buildings per se.

Living in a large space station or generation ship would likely be a similar kind of existence.

I gotta love the "seascraper" idea, though. As scary as it is (imagine the water pressure outside the walls on the lower levels!), it's so bold You just can't look away.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

I like the idea behind the Seascraper, but prefer somthing like this LILYPAD

 

[Pipcard]

Shimizu Corporation

 

[Kendo]

This one is interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23799590

 

[llarian]

Take a look at the domed city in the movie "Logan's Run".

Unless we can redesign the human body, or strictly limit reproduction, we will always have to build up, down or out.

Also, remember Heinlein's warning: "You can make animals go insane by putting too many into too small a space. Humans are the only species that does this to themselves voluntarily."

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Somewhat relevant work I'm doing with Andromeda Space Program:

Parelli city is located at the site of a canal bridging two of the major oceans of Upsilon Andromedae DI, and as such commands a great deal of power due to the strategic trade location.

The general idea would be that the city reservoir acts as both a municipal water reservoir, and a gravitational potential "battery", since the higher water level in the reservoir compared to the city itself would allow for power generation via a sort of water wheel. Using energy storage methods like this is generally considered ideal for a lot of "green" energy production methods that may produce large quantities of energy, but at a rate too slow to use directly.

 

[Andy44]

I am of the belief that the animated series "Batman Beyond" was inspired by the movie Akira, as the future Gotham City seems to draw from it:

I have always been a fan of Batman's old Gotham City, too, especially when it is drawn with a lot of emphasis on the Art Deco architecture style. If you look at the Chrysler Building in New York or the Hoover Dam, art deco style makes the structures look futuristic from a 1920s-30s point of view, which is awesome. Another art deco futuristic city was Metropolis from the 1927 Fritz Lang silent film of the same name.

Metropolis, and to some extent Gotham City, are both actually dystopian cities that failed to live up to the promise of the bright future.

But they both look really cool.

---------- Post added 10-07-13 at 12:33 AM ---------- Previous post was 10-06-13 at 11:53 PM ----------

This one is interesting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23799590

Watching that video the guy is rehashing the same utopian rhetoric that urban futurists have been sputing since the turn of the last century.

Le Corbusier was one of those. His ideas for rebuilding Paris formed the basis of the housing projects in New York City and the building of giant freeways through the city, both of which involved demolishing old neighborhoods.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Andy44, as I have come to expect from you (from one sci-fi reader to another), yet another subject in your posts that has been equally intriguing and fascinating for me over the years. The examples I would have added have already been mentioned, save, especially, one book that captivated me years ago and that I already mentioned once in a post quite a while ago; "The Machine Stops", E.M. Forster.

Here's some clips from an Anime version of Metropolis, quite cleverly set to some songs from one of my favorite dystopian albums...

Also, remember Heinlein's warning: "You can make animals go insane by putting too many into too small a space. Humans are the only species that does this to themselves voluntarily."

With utmost respect to the man and poster, he was forgetting ants (at least), which live such to such crowded society "stereotypes", so to put it, that they have evolved to fit those "types", and clearly do not go insane. Disclaimer; there is a tendency these days for people to jump and say "but hey! Ants are insects, not animals!". Last I knew, insects were still part of the animal kingdom. Comments?

 

[Andy44]

Here's some clips from an Anime version of Metropolis, quite cleverly set to some songs from one of my favorite dystopian albums...

Metropolis (Electric Light Orchestra) - YouTube

Wow! That is awesome, now I must find that movie!

A few years ago when they re-released the Fritz Lang 1927 version of Metropolis to movie theatres with the recovered footage I went and saw it at a small theater in Washington, DC and had a blast. The theatre was kind of small, the way most local theaters were back in the 70s before all these giant cineplexes, and it was packed wall to wall. There we were, smart phones and all, watching an old silent film in a real movie theater instead of on DVD the way it was meant to be. The movie itself has some simplistic themes and stereotypes that made people laugh, but everybody loved it, and it's definitely a better version than the ones I've seen before; the recovered scenes actually make the story more complete.

As for "The Machine Stops", it's been on my Amazon wish list since you told me about it, so I'll get to it sooner or later.