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- Disadvantages
- OA-Cities vs OB-Cities – was there ever a more unequal contest..?
CIVILISATION (5)
SPECULATIONS (8)
SUNDRY (5)
NON-PUBLIC

Home
THE BRIEF (16)
MOTIVE (9)
CARMAGEDDON (10)
OBeCITIES (9)
OAeCITIES (10)
ARCOLOGY (9)
ECOLOGY (19)
ECONOMICS (15)
ENERGY (12)
ESTHETICS (10)
COMMUNITY (7)
SOCIETY (13)
DIMocracy (12)
POSSIBILITIES (12)
PRACTICALITIES (11)
WHERE..? (9)
VISIONS (12)
CRITICISM (11)
PRO’s ‘n CON’s (2)
- Disadvantages
- OA-Cities vs OB-Cities – was there ever a more unequal contest..?
CIVILISATION (5)
SPECULATIONS (8)
SUNDRY (5)
NON-PUBLIC

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Leave a Comment / By Chris Mc Dermott / March 31, 2025

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The Concept

I conceived the idea of Oasis-Cities in the early 1990's, around the same time as the clarion call to "save the planet" (from "Global Warming" aka "Climate Change") was becoming the major issue that it is today. People in rich countries - whose high energy consumption and "throwaway" consumer lifestyles were largely responsible for excessive carbon emissions - were being exhorted to moderate their behaviour for the sake of the planet.

Although the idea of a "city under a single roof" had been proposed before - most notably by Paolo Soleri (qv) who coined the term "Arcology" (Architecture & Ecology) - all previous ideas had significant drawbacks. 1) they were unrealistically gargantuan - 2) they were not economically feasible - 3) they were not visually attractive - 4) they were super-densely populated and maybe not attractive places in which to live - and finally 5) they were not self-sufficient in energy, since solar and wind-power technology were then in their infancy.

Oasis-Cities neatly remedies all the above drawbacks and, as I further explored the concept, it dawned on me that the eco-benefits of OA-Cities - important as the are - are just the tip of the iceberg of many other potential benefits which are discussed on this site. I was convinced that Oasis-Cities is a comprehensive solution to ALL our eco-woes and that - all it needed to get the ball rolling was to get influential people excited about the possibilities, not least of which was the money-making opportunities which would come from launching THE BIGGEST BUILDING BOOM IN HISTORY..! So I would have bet my house that, by the start of the new millennium at the latest, the first OA-cities would be up and running with many more under construction or in the pipeline.

If, back in the early '90's, some cynical smart-arse had mocked my idea as "crazy" and said "nothing like your idea is gonna happen for decades, if ever..!", I would have called that person a CLOSED-MINDED CURMUDGEON..!!!

And yet here we are..., here we are 35 years later, and still nobody - not even eco-influencers like Al Gore, Greta, Bill Gates, or the green movement generally is even thinking of such an idea..!

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