Flooded MacDonalds

A recent trip to London to see the following film at an exhibition, which comprised a very convincing replica of a MacDonald's Burger Restaurant which gradually becomes flooded, replete with all the design paraphernalia and detritus that comes with themed restaurant spaces:



Flooded McDonald's from Superflex on Vimeo.

site specific architecture

Cathedral Of Nature

Miwok Roundhouse

Finding an example of architecture which was site specific using the natural environment was not that easy , I could of easily shown examples of our ancestors use of the land and the way they designed and built their homes, which was all land inclusive . Such as the Miwok Indians who built their homes from pine and cedar poles which were bound together with grape vine or willow, this was then covered cedar bark taken from dead trees . This way of existence treats nature as it should not taking from it but existing within it . However I wanted to try and find an example of a design from now as I said this was not easy, there were examples of buildings that Incorporated the land such as those with grass roofs or walls but none that used just the natural enforcement . The closest I came was the 'Cathedral of Nature' This was the creation of Guilano Mauri he has designed a living building. The cathedral is the same size as a real cathedral it covers 82 x 15 metres and is 12 metres high. The structures used to shape and support the cathedral will eventually rot away, by which tine the the trees will be able to support themselves. The cathedral can be found situated near Malga Costa in Italy. The design was supported by the group Arte Sella (an organisation that exhibits only natural land art) they believe that "the works come from nature they live in it and then over time return to it "

Mauri 's designs control nature bending them to form his designs however they also work with nature allowing it to continue in its growth and movement.

Science Fiction & Spatial Theory

Another paper worth perusing - but looks at Hong Kong specifically as a model of post-colonial, futurist cityscapes for films such as Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell...

Not What It Seems: Symbols of Utopia/Dystopia in Film Science Fiction

I came across this link during a random browse. It is relevant, it seems, in that it reiterates the ideas inherent in architecture and film, particularly relating to spatial utopia/heterotopia (a bit more on heterotopias later)

Fritz Lang: Metropolis (1926)

Steven Spielberg: Minority Report (2002) Image: Mark Goerner

Click Here To Listen: Blue Sky Dreams on This American Life

This is an exerpt from a powerful memoir that recounts the author's world (together with his family), growing up in middle-class suburbia, from Sputnik to the present, and writes of the great institutions--the government, the multinational corporations, the church, the suburban tract home neighborhood--in which his family put their faith, and how that faith was betrayed.

Ira Glass: 69 Dreamhouse, This American Life
http://www.powells.com/biblio?PID=28734&cgi=product&isbn=015600531X

Not What It Seems: Stepford Wives

The promise of perfection and idealism within a Connecticut fictional community is explored within concepts of utopia/dystopia

The Deserted Urban Sites and Forgotten Cities

Whilst looking at examples of Utopia and Dystopia, I found the following web link; Seven examples of abandoned cities and other deserted urban wonders from around the world. The places themselves look surreal, something out of a science fiction film. Empty, forgotten places.


Verona, New Jersey
http://weburbanist.com/2007/08/30/urban-abandonments-part-two-7-more-deserted-wonders-of-the-modern-world/

Utopia ideals that can often lead to Dystopian Reality

Web link is definitely worth a look; artists featured in Utopian Mirage: Social Metaphors in Contemporary Photography and Film. The artists are predominantly looking at how our utopian ideals have been overtaken by the realities of urban decay, corruption, loss of innocence, disregard for natural resources and nature’s chaotic cycles. This link is useful as it also gives a list of artists and a short description of their work.

J. Bennett Fitts, Salton Sea, 2003-05
http://collegerelations.vassar.edu/2007/2404/

Welcome to Rapture

In late 2007, 2K Boston released "Bioshock", a title which features one of gaming's most memorable utopian/dystopian visions - the underwater city of Rapture.

Below is a video showing the games opening and the introduction to the city of Rapture and its creator's philosophy.



The game is set in 1960, in the underwater city of Rapture - the utopian vision of an objectivist tycoon named Andrew Ryan, as a paradise away from oppressive political, economic and religious authorities and mandates.

"To build a city at the bottom of the sea! Insanity. But where else could we be free from the clutching hand of the Parasites? Where else could we build an economy that they would not try to control, a society that they would not try to destroy? It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else." - Andrew Ryan.

Rapture was built around the philosophies of objectivist thinkers such as Ayn Rand and Leonard S. Peikoff, intended as a place where artistic, industrial and scientific endevours could be pursued, however controversial, without moral or ethical restraint.

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute." - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (35th anniversary edition)

For several years, Rapture propsered as intended, a paradise of freedom and wealth. But ultimately, the very reason it was created - Ryan's hatred of authority - caused the downfall of both the city and of his ideals.



To keep his utopia a secret, Ryan passed a single law: contact with the surface was prohibited. This decision made smuggling profitable, resulting in the formation of a black market, which came to be dominated by a man with just as much determination as Ryan: Frank Fontaine.

Unlike Ryan, however, Fontaine wanted control. His wealth, combined with his monopoly on experimental genetic-mutation research, soon gained Fontaine enough power and followers to challenge Ryan for control of the city.

Ryan ultimately loses patience and has Fontaine killed, giving into the authoratative tendancies which he had created Rapture to reject. This hypocritical act sparks a civil war between Ryan and Fontaine's successor, Atlas, that eventually spreads to all of Rapture, crippling the city.



By the time the player enters Rapture, the city has long-since become a dystopia - a crumbling, art-deco husk, inhabited by only a handful of deranged survivors, and hordes of Atlas' "Splicers" (citizens with severe mental and physical problems caused by excessive gene-mutation), scavenging throughout the city.

R.E.M. – Stand – Listen free and discover music at Last.fm

Have a listen to this. Was stood in the kitchen doing the dishes when this came on and thought it be cool to have some musical content on the blog. Thinking of space nothing could be more apt. Enjoy...

Utopia/Dystopia - Social Housing Schemes

I looked at some of the big social housing schemes that started with great utopian ideals. The Hutchieson blocks in the gorbals in Glasgow, were designed by Sir Basil Spence to replace existing slums. Designed in 1959 and occupied in 1965 they consisted of 10 tower blocks linked by green space in a 15 acre space. His style of architecture was called ‘ brutalism’ and the buildings suffered from poor construction, maintenance, crime and vandalism and were demolished in 1993 - utopia turned to distopia. Byker wall in Newcastle is another famous social housing scheme designed by Ralph Erskine and built in the mid 1970s. Described as a pioneering social development, it received many awards and was listed in 2007. There are both positive and negative reports of this community - good community spirit and activities but also problems with drugs, vandalism and crime, which cause people to move away and start a downward spiral, so not quite the Utopia hoped for. I felt sure there were some successful schemes on the continent. I found one – Tinggaarden in Denmark, which was the first rental cohousing scheme. In 1971 the Danish Building Institute sponsored a competition for low rise cluster housing and the first residents moved in in 1976. Groups of apartments are built in clusters around communal areas. Its success has led to other schemes both private and rental and the government has made the funding process easier. As the schemes have evolved occupants have wanted smaller personal areas and greater communal facilities – so it does seem to have achieved a sort of Utopia and certainly looks a pleasant place to live.

www.rcahms.gov.uk/pls/portal/canmore.newcandig_details_gis?inumlink=70581
www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2007/01/06/byker_redevelopment_feature.shtml
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1440088/Crime-plagued-Byker-Wall-may-win-grade-II-listing.html
www.journallive.co.uk/.../tm_headline=a-national-treasure&method=full&objectid=18512558&siteid=50081-name_page.html
www.geocities.com/kaysgeography/byker.htm
http://l.cohousing.org/dk99/DKtour.TG2.html
www.tinggaarden.nu/_70297/Sider/In+English/Living+in+Tinggaarden.htm
www.cohousing.org/cm/article/related_denmark

Dystopian Ponte tower

Ponte tower in Johannesberg is a perfect example of a utopian ideal turning into a dystopian nightmare. The tower is 173 m high containing 54 floors, accommodating 470 apartments. The building is cylindrical in shape with the central core removed. It was built in 1975, renowned as the tallest building south of the equator. It started life as a very prestigious place to live; a signature building which celebrated a new way of living. However the nightmare began in the 1990's when the tower became home to drug users, gang warfare, prostitution and a high number of suicides. The residents not only abused themselves but also the building, they would empty their rubbish into the central space, disregard any repairs leaving the elevators unfixed and unused. Many of the residents were too afraid to leave their apartments and would pay to have their food supplies delivered. This once supposedly perfect place to live had become a space/place with its own rules, shut off from the rest of the city, governed by and ruined by its own existence in trying to control how its residents lived.

Utopian Place

Steven Holl is the architect who came up with this new build in Beijing. It consists of 8 x 22 storey towers which are linked together by several air bridges. His vision is to create a 'city within a city'. This linked Hybrid is his idea of an ideal environment to live. In China mass living is usually repetitive as well as cramped, Holl aspires to improve this by creating a selection of apartment layouts which offer spacious, diverse living. The linking bridges on the 20th floor house several public amenities including a swimming pool and an auditorium, there are also shops, cafes and a cinema. The towers sit amongst 5 garden mounts which contain recreational facilities. In one breath Holl is expressing this as open public space then, in another statement, that the facilities are controlled by residents' cards, which immediately poses the question within me whether this is not some kind of enclosure of false space, ie. a space which will only exist for its residents as a controlled utopia. Reading into the 2 quotes below which

I have taken from Dec 2008 issue of Icon journal by Justin Mcguirk I also question whether it is not a dystopian space of the future.

" Its a language we can trace back to Fritz Langs Metropolis "

"Looks like the perfect setting for JG Ballard's novel in which the social utopia becomes tainted by primitive heirarchies "

Utopian Themes and Graphics for Games Development: 'Click Here!'

What happens when we try to imagine a truly perfect environment? Who/what is included/exluded in this process? Where does the individual reside in a real or virtual utopia?

Floating Utopias - Daniel Dociu: Guild Wars

Click Here to Watch: Welcome to Germania!