Re: [scifinoir2] Retro-Futurism: 13 Failed Urban Design Ideas

[Martin Baxter]

Mr Worf, I'm still goggling at Hotel Attraction, and that Future New York
has steampunk potential.

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 5:36 PM, Mr. Worf  wrote:

>
>
>
>
>
>Web Urbanist 
>  
> 
> --
>
> Retro-Futurism: 13 Failed Urban Design 
> Ideas
>
> Posted: 30 Aug 2010 10:00 AM PDT
>  [ By Steph  in Architecture & 
> Design,
> History & Factoids , Technology
> & Futurism . ]
>
> Many an architect has dreamed up visionary plans for city centers, but few
> have actually seen their designs come to fruition in a real live urban
> setting. And while many such unbuilt concepts are technically viable, others
> are wacky, fanciful or downright bizarre. These 13 retro urban design ideas
> for the future, from perfectly symmetrical egalitarian communities to the
> egotistical demands of a deranged dictator, will probably never become
> reality – and in many cases, we’re better off that way.
>  Gillette’s Metropolis
>
> (images via: 
> io9
> )
>
> Before his name was inextricably connected to safety razors, King Camp
> Gillette had a utopian vision for the future which revolved around a
> waterfall-powered tiered city he dubbed ‘Metropolis’. All residents of this
> imagined city would have access to the same amenities including rooftop
> gardens in the perfectly round, precisely divided multi-functional buildings
> in which they would live, work, play and eat. Like many of Gillette’s ideas,
> the design never went anywhere, but it’s notably similar to many very modern
> 21st-century concepts for sustainable urban centers.
> Broadacre City
>
> (images via: 
> mediaarchitecture.at
> )
>
> Like Gillette’s Metropolis, Broadacre City was meant to be an urban utopia.
> But when renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright imagined the picture-perfect
> society of tomorrow, he saw not highly compact and efficient high-rises, but
> sprawling self-sustainable homesteads. Originally conceived in 1932,
> Broadacre City puts each homeowner in a self-built single-family home on an
> entire acre of land brimming with gardens. Complete with multiple 
> carsper family, it would almost be an 
> accurate prediction of future suburbia if
> not for the airplane in every front yard.
> Atomurbia
>
> (image via: 
> io9
> )
>
> If giving each and every family in America an acre of land seems
> impossible, imagine what life would be like if ‘Atomurbia’ had come to pass.
> This concept, published in a 1947 issue of Life magazine, detailed how to
> atomic bomb-proof America by spreading the population across the land in a
> geometric grid and relocating all industry into underground structures so
> that any single bomb would do a minimum of damage. The whole plan would have
> cost a measly 5 trillion dollars in today’s currency, and the authors –
> atomic scientists from Chicago – thought it could be pulled off within a
> decade.
> Hotel Attraction
>
> (images via: wikimedia commons
> )
>
> Antoni Gaudi’s architecture defines Barcelona, Spain even today with its
> fluid curves, reflective surfaces and organic shapes – but it would stick
> out like a sore thumb in the comparatively staid cityscape of Manhattan.
> Perhaps that’s what he had in mind for ‘Hotel Attraction’, commissioned in
> 1908 and also known as the Grand Hotel. The rounded, spaceship-like form
> would have risen in the exact spot where the Twin Towers of the World Trade
> Center were later built, but the idea was ultimately abandoned. Gaudi’s
> unrealized design was actually considered as a 
> possibilityfor the Ground Zero memorial 
> after the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
> Welthauptstadt
>
> (images via: wikimedia 
> commons
> )
>
> We all know that Adolf Hitler had many an ambitious plan that (thankfully)
> never came to pass – but few are aware of ‘Welthauptstadt’ (German for
> ‘World Capital’), the Fuhrer’s design for a new Berlin to be constructed
> after his expected victory in World War II. Taking elements from other
> empires around the world, Hitler imagined a broad ‘Avenue of Victory’ down
> the center as well as his very own ‘Arch of Triumph’. A test structure
> constructed in 1938 to determine whether Berlin’s marshy ground could have
> even held up

[scifinoir2] Retro-Futurism: 13 Failed Urban Design Ideas

[Mr. Worf]

   Web Urbanist 
 

--

Retro-Futurism: 13 Failed Urban Design
Ideas

Posted: 30 Aug 2010 10:00 AM PDT
 [ By Steph  in Architecture &
Design,
History & Factoids , Technology &
Futurism . ]

Many an architect has dreamed up visionary plans for city centers, but few
have actually seen their designs come to fruition in a real live urban
setting. And while many such unbuilt concepts are technically viable, others
are wacky, fanciful or downright bizarre. These 13 retro urban design ideas
for the future, from perfectly symmetrical egalitarian communities to the
egotistical demands of a deranged dictator, will probably never become
reality – and in many cases, we’re better off that way.
 Gillette’s Metropolis

(images via: 
io9
)

Before his name was inextricably connected to safety razors, King Camp
Gillette had a utopian vision for the future which revolved around a
waterfall-powered tiered city he dubbed ‘Metropolis’. All residents of this
imagined city would have access to the same amenities including rooftop
gardens in the perfectly round, precisely divided multi-functional buildings
in which they would live, work, play and eat. Like many of Gillette’s ideas,
the design never went anywhere, but it’s notably similar to many very modern
21st-century concepts for sustainable urban centers.
Broadacre City

(images via: 
mediaarchitecture.at
)

Like Gillette’s Metropolis, Broadacre City was meant to be an urban utopia.
But when renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright imagined the picture-perfect
society of tomorrow, he saw not highly compact and efficient high-rises, but
sprawling self-sustainable homesteads. Originally conceived in 1932,
Broadacre City puts each homeowner in a self-built single-family home on an
entire acre of land brimming with gardens. Complete with multiple
carsper family, it would almost
be an accurate prediction of future suburbia if
not for the airplane in every front yard.
Atomurbia

(image via: 
io9
)

If giving each and every family in America an acre of land seems impossible,
imagine what life would be like if ‘Atomurbia’ had come to pass. This
concept, published in a 1947 issue of Life magazine, detailed how to atomic
bomb-proof America by spreading the population across the land in a
geometric grid and relocating all industry into underground structures so
that any single bomb would do a minimum of damage. The whole plan would have
cost a measly 5 trillion dollars in today’s currency, and the authors –
atomic scientists from Chicago – thought it could be pulled off within a
decade.
Hotel Attraction

(images via: wikimedia commons
)

Antoni Gaudi’s architecture defines Barcelona, Spain even today with its
fluid curves, reflective surfaces and organic shapes – but it would stick
out like a sore thumb in the comparatively staid cityscape of Manhattan.
Perhaps that’s what he had in mind for ‘Hotel Attraction’, commissioned in
1908 and also known as the Grand Hotel. The rounded, spaceship-like form
would have risen in the exact spot where the Twin Towers of the World Trade
Center were later built, but the idea was ultimately abandoned. Gaudi’s
unrealized design was actually considered as a
possibilityfor the Ground Zero
memorial after the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
Welthauptstadt

(images via: wikimedia
commons
)

We all know that Adolf Hitler had many an ambitious plan that (thankfully)
never came to pass – but few are aware of ‘Welthauptstadt’ (German for
‘World Capital’), the Fuhrer’s design for a new Berlin to be constructed
after his expected victory in World War II. Taking elements from other
empires around the world, Hitler imagined a broad ‘Avenue of Victory’ down
the center as well as his very own ‘Arch of Triumph’. A test structure
constructed in 1938 to determine whether Berlin’s marshy ground could have
even held up such heavy Romanesque architecture (verdict: nope) still stands
today.
Palace of Soviets

(image via: 
adlhochcreative
)

The Palace of Soviets
would have been
the world’s tallest structure at 100 meters high and crowned
with a brightly l