arcologies and urban combat
- Thread starter atpollard
- Start date
I've seen those pictures of the hotel before... but I can't remember the context. Very interesting project.
Domes; Denver had serious plans at one time to throw a dome over the city. It never got anywhere, but it was in the planning stages when the project was nixed.
Domes; Denver had serious plans at one time to throw a dome over the city. It never got anywhere, but it was in the planning stages when the project was nixed.
I found this site: www.verticalfarm.com that could lead into arcologies. Some potential game material in the design pages.
In my cyberpunk game, we've postulated 'vertical ghettoes' built by megacorporations to house employees and dependents in a world where land prices are far, far beyond the reach of an individual.So this is the concept for a dystopian arcology;
They start out as simple towers, but start linking to each other on various levels. Modifications of the basic structure (via bribed or coerced city officials) allow arcology-style support services to be injected. Occasionally these things fall down, killing thousands. Usually they do not, but the stresses and problems created by on-going modification are part of the inhabitant's every day life.
You can tell the social status of a person by where they live vertically. The upper level tower people with their mansions, gravity-defying architecture and endless real sunlight (as permitted by smog) are very different people to the lower level drones in their 3m x 3m habmod with discoloured, built in furniture and characterless cheap housing that comes as part of the wage package. Work hard, shiv your workmates and you may literally climb that corporate ladder and tower! Midlevel managerial sectors have better access to entertainment sectors, the lifesupport isn't so noisy and the access net is actually soundproofed. You don't hear things crawling around in the ducting, freeze or swelter depending on how the air conditioning handles higher loads or become deafened as a freight lift roars past like you do in the lower levels. As a bonus though, the vast number of drones get free cable, whether they want it or not. And it's always turned on, so you don't miss a moment of that glorious, patronising, mind shrivelling and indoctrinating advertising. The lower level food halls, cut price malls and seedy entertainment zones contrast with the upper level restaurants, shopping centres and relaxation areas. Your wage comes with a myriad of discount coupons, so you of course only buy company goods, don't you?
When enough of these towers are clustered together the inter connectivity starts to reach a critical point and an envelope is planned. A skeletal structure binds the towers together and creates more building centres to maximise that precious space. More external access is needed and carefully controlled aerial access paths wind through the structural labrynth. Industry starts to move up into the arcology, and lateral and vertical freight rail becomes an important service industry. Garrisons of corporate police are needed, and the security apparatti becomes labrynthine. Sometimes security 'nodes' start to work at cross purposes as their managerial personnel vie for position and monopoly of the info feed from the myriad monitoring devices.
The lifestyle spectrum up the tower is gradual but deliberately perceptible; you can see the difference your progress or regression makes. The lowest levels are a hell of incoming and outgoing freight handling, waste management, power production and so on, whereas the upper levels are a heaven of architectural beuty, service and a relaxed lifestyle. The body of the arcology is a shading from one extreme to the other.
Why live there at all?
It's the only work available. The homeless live in a toxic cloud of pollution and sea of waste, preyed on by psychotic, desperate gangs amid the deserted old infrastructure. 'Wal-Marting' writ large, the tower corporations brook no intrusion into their markets, and smaller competitors are absorbed or destroyed. Everything is owned by the corporations, you are a tresspasser everywhere. Public space is a forgotten concept. Outside there is nothing, the individual has no right against the faceless, cancerous megacorporation.
Try and get offworld as fast as you can, at any cost . . .
They start out as simple towers, but start linking to each other on various levels. Modifications of the basic structure (via bribed or coerced city officials) allow arcology-style support services to be injected. Occasionally these things fall down, killing thousands. Usually they do not, but the stresses and problems created by on-going modification are part of the inhabitant's every day life.
You can tell the social status of a person by where they live vertically. The upper level tower people with their mansions, gravity-defying architecture and endless real sunlight (as permitted by smog) are very different people to the lower level drones in their 3m x 3m habmod with discoloured, built in furniture and characterless cheap housing that comes as part of the wage package. Work hard, shiv your workmates and you may literally climb that corporate ladder and tower! Midlevel managerial sectors have better access to entertainment sectors, the lifesupport isn't so noisy and the access net is actually soundproofed. You don't hear things crawling around in the ducting, freeze or swelter depending on how the air conditioning handles higher loads or become deafened as a freight lift roars past like you do in the lower levels. As a bonus though, the vast number of drones get free cable, whether they want it or not. And it's always turned on, so you don't miss a moment of that glorious, patronising, mind shrivelling and indoctrinating advertising. The lower level food halls, cut price malls and seedy entertainment zones contrast with the upper level restaurants, shopping centres and relaxation areas. Your wage comes with a myriad of discount coupons, so you of course only buy company goods, don't you?
When enough of these towers are clustered together the inter connectivity starts to reach a critical point and an envelope is planned. A skeletal structure binds the towers together and creates more building centres to maximise that precious space. More external access is needed and carefully controlled aerial access paths wind through the structural labrynth. Industry starts to move up into the arcology, and lateral and vertical freight rail becomes an important service industry. Garrisons of corporate police are needed, and the security apparatti becomes labrynthine. Sometimes security 'nodes' start to work at cross purposes as their managerial personnel vie for position and monopoly of the info feed from the myriad monitoring devices.
The lifestyle spectrum up the tower is gradual but deliberately perceptible; you can see the difference your progress or regression makes. The lowest levels are a hell of incoming and outgoing freight handling, waste management, power production and so on, whereas the upper levels are a heaven of architectural beuty, service and a relaxed lifestyle. The body of the arcology is a shading from one extreme to the other.
Why live there at all?
It's the only work available. The homeless live in a toxic cloud of pollution and sea of waste, preyed on by psychotic, desperate gangs amid the deserted old infrastructure. 'Wal-Marting' writ large, the tower corporations brook no intrusion into their markets, and smaller competitors are absorbed or destroyed. Everything is owned by the corporations, you are a tresspasser everywhere. Public space is a forgotten concept. Outside there is nothing, the individual has no right against the faceless, cancerous megacorporation.
Try and get offworld as fast as you can, at any cost . . .
