“CHANGE” is the mantra of eco-crusaders like Greta (“you have destroyed my future”) Thunberg and her Greenie groupies. But do any of those eager changelings have the slightest inkling of what kind of change they want..? They prattle on about making society “more inclusive” and “more caring” – but what SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC form should that new society take.?
Unless these changelings specify exactly what kind of new society they want, then “CHANGE” is just another mindlessly meaningless NWO platitude..!
BUT A NEW MODEL CITY WOULD MEAN REAL CHANGE..!
OA-Cities will make the “existing model” (OB-Cities) obsolete..!
OASIS CITIES – the “New Model” City that will render ALL existing cities OBSOLETE..!
Cities were originally constrained by topography and defensive WALLS, which made them immune to the CANCER of SPRAWL
CITIES of old may have been unsanitary, but they were at least WALKABLE..! Aided by railways at first and later by cars, our cities have ballooned into bloated, formless, endlessly DEPRESSING DYSTOPIAN SPRAWLS..! Every year vast tracts of fields are buried and woodland felled to be replaced by thousands of miles of tarred service roads, millions of tons of concrete paving, and hundreds of thousands bland brick-built boxes of mediocre quality and low aesthetic standard. These agglomerations of “housing” and service roads are dependent on an increasingly complex utilities infrastructure, ever vulnerable to disruption. Hundreds of these non-descript new “sub-divisions” are thrown up every year, but the “housing crisis” is never solved.
Vast Urban Sprawls = CITIES GONE TO SEED =
OBeCITIES (Obese Cities)
an OBESE CITY or OBe-CITY
an OASIS CITY habitat – now this is meaningful CHANGE..!
The city is the cradle and the expression of civilisation - Paolo SoleriThe defining physical legacy of any civilisation are its CITIES. There has never been a civilisation worthy of the name that did not build great cities. The close confines of cities facilitate human interaction and the dissemination and cross-fertilisation of inspirational ideas. Cities are where civilisation germinates
My objective is to show how Arcologies – usually dismissed as a far-fetched Utopian (or Dystopian) fantasy – could be a “ONE-STOP SHOP” solution to Western civilisation’s most pressing environmental, social, political and economic problems.
Firstly, I need to dismiss the commonplace misconception that an “Arcology”, in order to qualify as one, has to be “an ENTIRE city within a SINGLE building”. NONSENSE..! An Arcology of a million people (or even 100,000) living in a colossal HYPER-STRUCTURE makes no practical sense..! Aside from the financial, technical and time-scale difficulties that would be-devil its construction, other practical and aesthetic considerations also mitigate against such outlandishly enormous habitats. For example, I am sure that most people would prefer to…
- live in an apartment with a wonderful view.
- live within an easy walk of a beautiful nature zone.
- live in a community of a “just right” size – not too many people, nor too few..!
Living in a single multi-purpose edifice has enormous environmental, economic, and social benefits
Recent years have witnessed an enormous media focus on “saving the planet”, with endless processions of eco-pundits fulminating over carbon emissions and hand-wringing over “Global Warming”, since re-branded as “Climate Change” (a convenient each-way bet). Although celebrity “starchitects” such as NORMAN FOSTER have often spoken about the need to DENSIFY OUR CITIES, they never specify how to achieve that objective – aside from vague calls for more “medium-density housing”. To the best of my knowledge, not one of these famous architects or eco-pundits has ever suggested that Enclosed Eco-Cities, or EEC’s, could solve a whole bunch of problems at one fell swoop..!
From a purely environment aspect the EEC is a NO-BRAINER..!
BUT – the environment aspect is only a small part of the story..!
OASIS CITIES (OA-Cities)
Safe and secure within their sheltering sanctuary, OAeCitizens would live, work, socialise, and enjoy all the comforts and benefits of city life but without the heavy eco-footprint of OBeCities (sprawl cities). And with none of the OB-City BAD stuff – bad housing, bad neighbours, bad public transport, bad services, bad air quality, bad crime, and bad weather..!
Because even BAD WEATHER can be ameliorated in Oasis-Cities..!
The benefits of OA-Cities are not limited to the environment or the eradication of many inconveniences and annoyances, as important as all those things are..! OA-Cities could have a host of unexpected bonus benefits.
AlI are listed HERE or, at least, as many as I could think of. One small, but rather comforting, example is that OA-Citizens will never need to venture outside and face gale force wind, pelting rain, freezing winters, or a summer heat wave..! Unless their job demanded it, of course. OA-City environs will be so agreeable you will rarely want to leave its tranquillity, its harmony, its conviviality, its beauty and (perhaps above all) its safety. You may even prefer to HOLIDAY AT HOME..! And, unlike with emigration, you will not have to say goodbye to your family and friends..! In fact THEY will suddenly become very much keener to VISIT YOU..! Because visiting an OA-City will be like going on holiday to a RESORT HOTEL..!
Oasis Cities would be self-financing and would not require any multi-trillion-dollar “Manhattan Projects” or “Marshall Plans” or any vexatious international agreements or co-operation at all..!
OASIS-CITIES – Islands in the Land
An “Oasis” is a haven of safety and tranquillity – a green sanctuary surrounded by a dangerous and inhospitable sea of sand. Islands are another type of Oasis, the only difference being that they are surrounded by a sea of water rather than a sea of sand. Everyone loves islands, especially small islands, as they exude the sensation of a calmer and more carefree lifestyle. People tend to be more friendly, less suspicious, nobody is in a rush, there is less noise, fewer disturbances and – although islanders earn less money than mainlanders – they are much more contented..!
An Oasis-City may consist of a single stand-alone structure or a group of such structures. Each habitat module would be home to a community selected on the basis of compatibility and, very possibly, there will also be a commitment to giving up some free time to COMMUNITY WORK. A single OA-City habitat would probably contain between 5,000 and 15,000 people – neither too many or too few – or whatever is deemed an ideal community size.
Not only would they occupy far less land, OA-Cities would have incomparably more visual appeal than the unsightly 2-D sprawls of OB-Cities
Albeit very large buildings in conventional terms, OA-City modules would be nowhere near as enormous as the gargantuan hyper-structures postulated by Paolo Soleri and a few other visionary architects in the ’60’s and ’70’s. If you think 8000 people is too many for one building, consider that this SHIP accommodates that number of people in just 10% of the space – and with no surrounding parkland in which to escape the crowd..!
Unlike Soleri’s Arcologies, which would take many decades to build and be impossibly expensive, OA-City habitats could be built at a reasonable cost within a realistic time frame.
OA-Cities will be much friendlier, happier and healthier places than OB-cities. Because they will harvest their own energy, water and food – and will re-cycle most of their waste (yes, those included..!) – their citizens would in turn harvest a sense of fulfilment. OA-cities will conserve the countryside from ugly sprawl housing estates since they will occupy less than 20% of the land that would be required for conventional towns and cities. Furthermore, since each module will be surrounded by an Arcadian “Domain” of landscaped gardens lakes and woodland, OA-Cities would both enhance and beautify the countryside.
BUILD IT – AND THEY WILL COME..!
BETTER STILL – THEY WILL PAY TO COME AND SEE IT..!
ONE prototype in the right place – possibly Singapore – would showcase the myriad benefits of the concept, thus lifting the scales from millions of doubting minds..!
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