MC1 style building Concept for London

[Tweak72]

500 Floors. Home for up to 100,000 people. Dear God lest hope not.

Link: http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/02/28/popularchitecture%E2%80%99s-pie-in-the-sky-city/" target="_blank">Mile High Building

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/5170PopularchitectureConceptTower_pic1.jpg">

[Gavin_Leahy_Block]

Well if it dose go up we have a fare idea how it will end "tower mania".  

Its strange how more and more aspects of MC-1 are becoming nearly everyday features of our environment.

[IndigoPrime]

"The mile-high tower also illustrates the ecological advantages of living tall, as building up instead of out holds more people in a smaller footprint."

And requires substantial area around the building to be 'dead' space. As the UK found when it demolished loads of terrace houses and replaced them with nasty sink estates of flats, you often get FEWER people per square mile when you build upwards. Gnh.

[TordelBack]

...you often get FEWER people per square mile when you build upwards...

Absolutely true, but if I remember my Urban Geography days there is an optimum point somewhere between 3 and 8 storeys where you're using much less horizontal space for much the same density of 'living' space.  I don't think this tower (I want to say arcology) could be remotely efficient.  

[satchmo]

One day I'm going to do a comic about the redevelopment of Newcastle in the 60s, it was touched on a bit in Our Friends in The North, but it's a fascinating story.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T_Dan_Smith" target="_blank">T. Dan Smith

[Devons Daddy]

singapore
offers an insight into urban living in the future.
98% of the population live in tower blocks,each area is a fully integrated environment.with schools,shops,clubs and sports facilities within a 20 minute radius.
 in the are i live they recently biult a shopping mall with all the normal things malls have,condo tower complex swimming pool gym etc,office block,medical unit,dentists,police post,post office,community club.monorail link station,Underground station and bus interchange,carpark and taxi rank with covered linkways to all other areas.oh and roof top garden area.
MEGA CITY ONE.is not so far away,it could with all honesty be built in asia.

[Peter Wolf]

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z122/peterwolf_album/?action=view¤t=Shanghai.jpg" target="_blank">http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z122/peterwolf_album/Shanghai.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

 This is Shanghai .

 The largest 24 hour building site on the planet and in doing so they have almost completely drained the water table in the area.

 Personally i wouldnt like to live in that type of enviroment.

[WoD]

Me neither, but I'd love to visit.  The place has a beauty to it.

[JTurner]

They look great on paper, but add people and it all goes tits up.

I was weeding the collection of a library the other day and found a book from the late 50s/ early 60s (can't remember the exact date). It was all post war London optimism, and had these wonderful illustrations of 'the future of our cities'. Basically they were pictures of council high-rises and blocks of flats.

The book made them look like those idealised utopias from Star Trek (white walls, splashes of greenery, idealised residents). The authors and illustrators probably lived to see just what their dreams would become.

[TordelBack]

The awful irony of the highrise flat project in Britain is that over here in Ireland we watched the whole thing go to shite, and then like the good little post-colonial wannabes we were/are, we did exactly the same thing in 1965: tore down our inner cities, shattered generations of community networks, and stuck everyone in a wind-harrowed wasteland miles from anything resembling a job or something to do, where the lifts never worked and the shopping centre looked like the entrance to Bartertown.  We've only just got round to demolishing the bloody things, in the process uprooting the community that had managed to develop in the interim.

[Peter Wolf]

 Here is a link to a site with all the recent development in Brighton.some of it good and some of it bad ,some of it not built yet.


 Take note of the hideousness of the King Alfred development [not yet built] and the Royal Alexandra Childrens Hospital [just completed].I take particular offence at the King Alfred development and the childrens hospital while being designed to be pleasing to the eyes of children looks awful.


 Streets and streets of terraces were cleared in the centre of town in the timescale of about 30 years for what amounts to a dozen featureless tower blocks with dead space all around them.

 The empty spaces around blocks of flats and shopping centres become windswept Anti Spaces devoid of all life.

 Also as all three developments on the seafront here have been approved by planning [as if i thought they wouldnt]they set a precedent for future developments on the seafront ultimatly all the way along since 3 have been approved there is no reason not to approve future development since development has already started.

Link: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=281583" target="_blank">http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=281583

[Devons Daddy]

such environments need strict rules in place  and enforced.
another megacity element i would suggest.
once again singapore shows its possible,here basically a police state.
security cameras everywhere and enough police to enforce all the laws passed.

even littering, gets instant fines and work orders,all pets need licenses,want to repaint your door? get permission and a permit,get caught doing something wrong by police and dont show up at local station, they come and get you.
oh and lets not forget stop and search,or premises search. NO WARRANT NEEDED!
and everyone carrys and ID card which is linked to everything you do and own. any of this sounding like a typical mega city cit lifestyle yet?

i understand its still a way off in the west, but out here with the huge pace of development its a near future thing not far.

[TordelBack]

The empty spaces around blocks of flats and shopping centres become windswept Anti Spaces devoid of all life.

Well put, that man.

[Peter Wolf]

a href="http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z122/peterwolf_album/?action=view¤t=jubileelibrary1.jpg" target="_blank">http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z122/peterwolf_album/jubileelibrary1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">


 This is what i mean.


 You are looking at the new library.Lovely building as i like a fair bit of modern architecture.


 In front is the paved area which apart from a token amount of ugly seating seems to serve no purpose whatsoever and is a total waste.

 A large fountain or /and a well stocked centre piece garden and some trees would have provided a focal point and a pleasant meeting place to sit and hang out.

 But as it is it is Dead space and a waste and empty at night as these places always are.

 You never get drinking fountains in the St in England either.

[Floyd-the-k]

do let us know when the Singaporeans invent 'boing'