September 15, 2005

City of the future. Following a theme here, I bring you Jacque Fresco and The Venus Project. He's got it all planned out - cities, energy, construction, housing, transportation, even space! How cool is his research centre, brains living in domes.

I wonder just how many of these ideas will come to fruition and in what sort of time frame.

posted by tellurian 18 years ago
  • Xanadu
  • Interesting stuff. I look forward to reading some of the articles there. Having learned a lot about the emergence of modern industrial society recently, it's hard to be very optimistic. I think anybody looking to technology to save society (which I'm not accusing this site of, I haven't looked at it much yet) should take a closer look at the driving forces behind technological progress. Yet some of those century-old dreams are nonetheless very inspiring.
  • That's a sad story Argh.
  • I really want to live on one of those ocean cities.
  • I agree stripe, beside some of the driving forces like new materials, flexibility, modularity, low cost and quicker construction on site (automation), I think that environmentally friendly structures that are aesthetically pleasing that also encourage human interaction are very important. Unfortunately, I think that these last three points are not often given the value they deserve in urban planning.
  • Ah, the Venus Project and domes links keep timing out for me, but I've been obsessed with building a dome home for several years. The Mickey Mouse configuration is thae one I want, with some changes.
  • Gosh I've been obsessed with building a dome home too! Especially given that I live on several moving tectonic plates. What is the resistance for them? Too none-traditional?
  • They leak.
  • When planners learn to pave the path people would have chosen anyway, I will start believing in planned cities.
  • gomichild, so do you live in California, too? I think there's something about their seismic strength in that link, but, since I'n not ready to buy, yet, I haven't focused on it. Wolof - evidence of leakage, links? You could save me from buying one if you're right.
  • It's because of the shape of them -- you have so many metres where the panels abut each other that you have to seal against rain etc. I'm not saying you can't do it, but it's something of a design fault.
  • From here: Domes tend to develop leaks because the sun heats the dome during the daily cycle and the stresses are conveyed through the structure as the sun moves through the sky much as one might break the shell of a hard-boiled egg by simultaneously pressing and rolling.
  • Nah I live in Kanagawa, Japan. *looks outside her window at the flimsy wooden and plaster houses* That lot are going down like dominoes when the Big One hits. (probably when this apartment falls over onto them)
  • evidence of leakage . . . . . . ah, never mind.
  • I want an eco-friendly adobe home /old fashioned girl
  • This thread needs more reverb.
  • Jane Jacobs discussed and heavily critisized these sorts of mega-projects and planned cities (which are called the "radiant garden city" design -- big towers, surrounded by useless greenspace and no urban life). All these sort of over-planned "utopias" reek of 1960's and 70's slum clearance "projects" to me. In her "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", Jacobs goes into detail why they don't, and never will work. Anyways, here is an interesting interview with her. What can I say. I love the hustle and bustle of old downtowns and real cities. Overplanned homogeneous utopias give me the creeps.
  • This thread needs more reverb. Groovy comment.