OASIS-CITIES – Islands in the Land

“Who can doubt that islands are an irresistible fetish for most people. Small islands especially so; islands sufficient for 40 acres and a mule, but not much larger than that.  Islands that can be taken in with a single gaze from no great distance.” 

 

 

 

 

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 Arcology hyper-structures postulated by Paolo Soleri (and other visionary architects) in the ’60’s and ’70’s.  If you think 8000 people is too many residents for one structure, consider that a single CRUISE SHIP can accommodate that number in just 10% of the space – and people are happy to pay £$thousands for a holiday aboard..!   AND, unlike with OA-Cities, cruise ships have 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, especially using pre-fabricated slot-in apartment modules.   

OA-Cities will be much friendlier, happier and healthier places than OB-cities.  In harvesting their own energy, water and food – and re-cycling most of their waste (including otherwise flushed and forgotten No2’s) – OA-citizens would themselves 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 city 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..!

EVEN BETTER – THEY WILL PAY TO COME AND SEE IT..!

ONE prototype in the right place – SINGAPORE could be an ideal venue – would showcase the myriad benefits of the concept, thus lifting the scales from millions of doubting minds..! 

 

In the not-so-distant future I anticipate many self-contained, self-sufficient, and self-governing City-states based on the OA-City modular-city concept – perhaps loosely united within a Confederal-type structure.