Kowloon Walled City – demolished 1993
Science-fiction movies such as “Soylent Green” and “Logan’s Run” (and other more recent ones) invariably portray futuristic cities as over-crowded post-apocalyptic dystopias teeming with frightened downtrodden denizens forced to work as slaves by an evil fascist dictator and his heavily-armed thugs.
HIGH POPULATION DENSITY is widely considered un-desirable – and yet the most densely-populated London suburb – Kensington and Chelsea – is also the MOST EXPENSIVE..!
How many of the millions who visit BARCELONA and enjoy its cosmopolitan atmosphere realise that it is the MOST DENSELY-POPULATED CITY IN EUROPE..?
If visitors to Barcelona knew it were the most “over-crowded” city in Europe, would they then hate it..?
The “City Within a Building” idea evokes negative reactions because people tend to associate high population density with a lack of privacy and CROWDS of people milling around – a hectic, stressful and noisy place in which to live.
If this is a “HUMAN HIVE”, I want to BEE living in it..!!!
The most annoying critic is the type – usually a woman, sadly – that vents mindlessly irrational and emotion-driven snarls like “so you want to FORCE everyone to live in a human hive?”. “Mindlessly irrational” because – over and over again – I have made it abundantly clear that living in an Oasis City will be a voluntary lifestyle choice.
Mark my words there will soon come a time when people will be fighting tooth-and-nail for the chance to live in a “human hive” like the one above.
Most will be disappointed as demand will exceed supply for decades if not centuries..!
CRUISE SHIPS – widely considered to be the most relaxing holiday choice – ARE FAR MORE OVER-CROWDED THAN OASIS CITIES..!
Cruise ships are frequently described as floating “mini-cities” as they contain not only living quarters, but restaurants, libraries, theatres, shops, swimming pools, sports facilities, etc. They also generate their own power and distil their own water. If this can be achieved in a floating steel box, how much simpler and less expensive on dry land..?
“Oasis of the Seas” (pictured above) and its 3 sister superliners can accommodate >6000 passengers in considerable luxury – no bunk beds these days, even the cheapest “state rooms” have full-size beds..!
If one of these “floating cities” was beached on land, its “footprint” would be about 20,000 m2 (2 hectares), so SEVENTY of them could fit into Hyde Park (140 hectares). With a full passenger load its population density (excluding crew), is 300,000 per km2, or about 25 x greater than the densest parts of central London…!
OASIS-CITIES – CAR-FREE, CARBON-FREE, CARE-FREE & CRIME-FREE
You really make it seem so easy with
your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something that I think
I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for
me.
I am looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of
it!
I never said it is going to be easy for a large portion of humanity to switch to living in Oasis-Cities (or similar), but it is the logical way to go for the rationalisation and simplification of infrastructure, and necessary for the huge reduction in our land usage/wastage and carbon-footprint that this will bring about. When you say “too complicated” do you mean the overall concept or the way I have presented it? I don’t know how many other pages you have read because this is just one randomly-chosen page out of nearly 200, so is that what you mean when you say its “too complicated”..?
I am aware that the site has become unwieldy and repetitive, if not rambling. It is not intended as a blog with regular updates and new posts, so what you see now is what you get. I am in the process of making a book of it and hopefully that will enable me to rationalise and simplify the content. You are most welcome to comment on individual pages if you think something is not clear or if you disagree with anything. I value your input, thankyou.