Saturday, December 03, 2005

I visited the suburbs today. I'd try to write something acidic and clever about the experience -- or, more precisely, the pronounced lack of experience -- but it looks like I already covered the topic last year.

6 comments:

Carol said...

Er, those neat arches at Arcosanti are actually areas such as the ceramic studio. If you look at some of the models for projected arocologies they involve "standardized structures" (i.e., Levittown stacked) for the bulk of the habitation.

Roger Dean does really wonderful hobbitty sort of architecture too, and I think we have a hardwired response to wanting caves like that. But I don't think that we as a culture (and I mean "the Western World") have the will or courage to adopt radical changes to our lifestyles.

Carol said...

Here's some of Roger Dean's wonderful architectural work:

http://www.rogerdean.com/architecture/willowater.htm

Watch that bit about plastic gnomes, though. My own decor depends on a fair amount of trolls and plastic donosaurs. :)

Gerald T said...

This is the anti burbs Man!
I love his blog, on my top 5 list, PHB being numb 1 of corz!

http://www.kunstler.com/index.html

Mac said...

A stacked Levittown? I don't like the sound of that...

I regret not getting to see Arcosanti when I was in Arizona in January. Hopefully next time.

Carol said...

Let me see them build it in New Jersey, then we'll talk about it being viable.
Geez, Radburn was too radical for them...

Think of all the really stupid, venal, nasty, superficial people you know.

Then think of them doing it for 200 years.

It's Post-Human Paradise (tm)!

{She intoned cheerfully, checking her watch to see if it's time for the soylent green snack before playing the Xbox Tesseract]

W.M. Bear said...

I regret not getting to see Arcosanti when I was in Arizona in January. Hopefully next time.

I visited Arcosanti about 10 years ago. Very interesting - BIG plans. Don't know how much it's advanced along the way towards realizing those plans since then. Everything -- and I mean everything was still pretty much "under construction" at that point. I don't mean this as a criticism. It's basically a commune for very bright people committed to a worthy ideal.

And speaking of suburbs and New Jersey, this just in:

Open Season Starts on Black Bears in N.J.

And a quote from the story:

"New Jersey hunters take to the woods Monday for a controversial season aimed at thinning the state's growing population of black bears, whose hungry foraging has frightened suburban residents."