The Dystopia Is Now

The idea of the 'Dystopia' alludes to a devastated place. A place lacking of hope, a destroyed place, somewhere in the future. However, what if I said that the Dystopia is now?

Architecture is changing, it is being forced by economics; how many houses can we cram in that area. Space will soon be measuring not just in area, but in terms of volume.

We spend Billions on making nuclear weapons and heating the planet, yet we can't afford to house and populate our world.

It is funny how the most chilling of images can also be the most beautiful.

Lets look at things like earthquakes; we build a city, it is destroyed, people are killed and lose everything and sit back we pretend to care. Then we just build the city back again as if nothing happened. Why don't we take precautions. 

Nevertheless, the fact remains that if the disaster doesn't get the media attention, there won't be enough money to rebuild these communities. 

Scars are left upon the community that would cost too much to fix, we just build somewhere else.

 Capitalism drives us and controls us whether we like it or not.

Here is the reaction; to personalize these alienated dystopias. Within these ignored 'non-places' life is created and represented through art form. However, due to the media and collective opinion the social value of these places is reduced further by graffiti, reflecting negative connotations linked with youth culture. 

So are these artists attempting to make a point? Is it a cry for help, speaking out against the capitalist world. Fighting a lost cause, but fighting nonetheless...

Futurism: Factory Fifteen new animation

Evening all,
Check out my other blog for an interesting look at Factory Fifteen.
A company that creates animations and pretty sweet stuff!!!
This video is their latest work reflecting an idea of London under construction. It is jaw-dropping.
Here is a quick example of what they do:

Leave your thoughts below!

We are all going to live in chairs

Yes that's right. In the future we are not going to need buildings any more, chairs are the way forward!

"Designer Eduardo McIntosh has proposed a way of putting all the 

functions of a home into a single chair."

Isn't the main function of a home/buildings in general to provide 


shelter?

Called Autonomous Living Unit, the project envisages furniture 


that could be installed in derelict buildings and deserted housing 


projects to “provide for the basic needs of the 21st century human 


being.”

Autonomous Living Units is a somewhat satirical project that stands 


at the intersection of the current housing crisis, the tendency of 


people in developed countries to live on their own and the trend of 


turning architecture into a consumer product.

He is basically being ironic and suggesting that our values as human beings has been reduced to its principal values.

Look at these beautiful renders. I have stared to demonstrate how to develop spaces in my other blog, but if you get good at it it can lead you to creating images like this!

There is a very raw and constructivist element to this project along with the ideas of Dystopia; that theses 'shelters' have been made out of the ruins of buildings, yet people are still able to use them to survive. Maybe it is a message to the governments about the tensions surrounding nuclear arms? Especially seeing as the Iran situation is getting worse.

As always let me know what you think!

 

Update 03/03/2012

Hi, just an update, I will be posting again soon, but if you are looking for a tutorial on how to design spaces for games, etc., check out http://nuclearwarandmuchmore.blogspot.com/ my other blog. Thanks :)

In return have two of my favorite memes;

James Bond Villan style nuclear shelter

Could this be the future?
Check my other blog for more nuclear shelter information.
Designed by Albert France-Lanord Architects, this building is a converted Nuclear shelter.
Not too sure about the sustainability of the building as it is underground, and therefore receives no light, yet it could be relatively warm!
I am considering putting on of these into my next design? What do you think? Please leave a comment!!!

Will we reach Utopia

The current political situation worldwide is dire. It has become a possibility that the world will collapse in the near future, so rather than looking at the world as a Utopian dream could we see it as an apocalyptic wasteland?



Examples of these 'alternate' landscapes can be seen in media such as; "I am Legend", "Book of Eli", games such as "Fallout 3" and many more.
The film "I am Legend" focuses on a disease outbreak, which is an unlikely result, but the latter 2 focus on a post-nuclear world. With unstable countries such as Iran and North Korea obtaining nuclear weapons, making the rest of the world paranoid, the chances of nuclear war are reaching the levels of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.



However, do not fear as there is evidence to suggest that as a country obtains nuclear weapons they become more stable as anybody who doesn't have nuclear weapons
doesn't want to attack them and they know if they use them it could be the end of the world.

Is Shanghai the Future?

Shanghai, China's most exciting city, is changing at breakneck speed. That transformation, along with the hope, fear, greed and nostalgia that it engenders, is the stuff of novels, yet its rate of development is frightening.

Brian Castro is one author who draws inspiration from Shanghai.

"It was a mythical place for me, and it was a kind of dream world for him," says Castro, who was born in Hong Kong in 1953 to Eurasian parents.

Castro describes lavish parties on river piers where his great-great-grandfather showered money on rickshaw drivers who brought the guests.

"Can you imagine how obscene that is? But that was the kind of magical scenario I was brought up with," he says.

He says the scale of the transformation means is such that Shanghai feels like a completely different city, and he laments the lost worlds that will never reappear again.That Shanghai is constantly changing also has led Castro to contemplate "transience, and how memory and forgetting works, and how cities sink and rise." Shanghai is clearly ascending...

"It's like a star rising. It will take Hong Kong over in its pure industry and energy, yet at the same time, there's a lot of loss of the past."

Born in Shanghai in 1953, Qiu Xaiolong now lives in St. Louis and writes detective thrillers set in his native city.Qiu uses the city as a mirror to reflect the changes sweeping China, and how ordinary people, like his poetry-loving detective, Chief Inspector Chen, are caught in that transition and demonstrates the impact of crime upon architecture.Chen tries to change with the city, but can't help missing the old ways, author Qiu says. "He doesn't have a clear-cut answer whether this [change] is good or bad."However, Qiu believes that the city's essence lies in its ability to embrace the new: "Shanghai in China is always … changing with new trends. I don't think that kind of essence is changing."

Mian Mian, whose work speaks to a younger generation of Chinese readers, acknowledges the debt she owes to growing up in Shanghai.


"Shanghai is the most open city in China. We're more brave … I'm very lucky to be Shanghainese if I want to be a modern writer."

The author is a reformed heroin addict, and her books venture into the seamier side of China's reform era, with a cast of characters including drug addicts, gangsters, slackers and artists all products of the Megalopolis.Ten years ago, she described Shanghai as a "beautiful young bitch who loves money." She still characterizes the city as a "super-superficial" young female.For Mian Mian, the mood of the city has changed in the past decade. In the 1990s, Shanghai was like a small town, where everyone knew everyone and people were positive about the future.

Now, she says, the country is changing too fast. "Everyone is pushing and running because of business."

Shanghai, too, is rushing headlong into the future, towards the cosmopolis, even as its inhabitants struggle to deal with the present. It's racing to become a showcase settlement, a paragon of modernity. And yet in building a new tomorrow, it risks forgetting, or even erasing, its own past.