The Digital Distopias of Mike "Beeple" Winkleman

The Digital Distopias of Mike "Beeple" Winkleman

Edificio Container criollo en San Andresito San Jose Bogota - Colombia

Wait, so shipping container homes are now Futuristic? Then call me futurist because I'm building a shipping container home for myself

I came up with a design using 4- 20 footers, placing them in a square with the middle being open, like a Moroccan Riad except instead of being open, I had a greenhouse in the middle.

wildgoldenhoney said:

Wait, so shipping container homes are now Futuristic? Then call me futurist because I'm building a shipping container home for myself I came up with a design using 4- 20 footers, placing them in a square with the middle being open, like a Moroccan Riad except instead of being open, I had a greenhouse in the middle.

Dystopian worlds, I've posted a few art pieces where people make our future civilizations looking totally like this. Think Mad Max...

the 3rd picture is a real containter complex

Battleship Island - Japan's Rotting Metropolis

An hour or so's sail from the port of Nagasaki, an abandoned island silently crumbles.

Justin Plunkett's "Con/struct" Series Imagines Future of Urban Sprawl

South African designer Justin Plunkett's "Con/struct" series has more in common with the digitally-fabricated renderings of speculative architecture than documentary photography,

OldFriends4Sale said:

It has been twenty years since the demolition of the Kowloon Walled City. To mark this, the South China Morning Post has created an info-graphic that details the facts and figures of what life was like inside this architectural oddity.

The Kowloon walled city was like a glitch in the urban fabric of Hong Kong; a solid 2.7 hectare block of unrestrained city. Depending on who you ask, it was a Bladerunner-esque slum or a poor, but tight-knit community. Either way, for the best part of the last century, it was the most densely populated place on earth, with 3,250,000 people per square mile, compared to Hong Kong's mere 17,000.

The site of the walled city dates back hundreds of years. Spending most of its life as a Chinese military outpost, the Chinese hung on to the KWC when Hong Kong was leased to the British in 1898, as its location, right in the middle of the territory, made it easy for them to keep an eye on the new tenants - an idea which didn't sit too well with the British.

What transpired next was decades of confusion and diplomatic sensitivity, as both countries sought to claim sovereignty over the area. It came to a head at the end of WWII when the Japanese, who had captured the city, surrendered. China announced it's intention to fully reclaim the site, causing floods of refugees to flee there and creating unease with Britain who intended to continue as it had before.

To avoid putting further strain on relations, both countries developed a 'hands-off' approach to the city, leaving the enclave more or less ungoverned by police, building codes, health laws, or any other form of regulation. The population of the city boomed as refugees and small businesses flocked there to take advantage of this new city where you didn't need a visa, a licence to operate, or to pay any tax.

The population surge continued unchecked, while politicians, for the most part, stood back. The government provided water mains and mail delivery to the city, as well as orchetrating a series of raids in the 1970's to root out the Triads who had taken control of the city's various brothels, casinos and opium dens. By the 1980's, the population stood at 33,000, with most people sharing apartments of 250 sqft or less with several other families. The vast majority of the complex's 350-odd buildings were between 10-14 stories tall and devoid of any input from architects, planners or engineers; their height was restrained only by the proximity of Kai Tak airport.

Between the buildings there was a dense labyrinth of crevice-like alleyways, many only 1-2 meters wide, where sunlight rarely made it down to ground level. When navigating this network, residents would carry umbrellas to protect themselves from water dripping from leaky pipes above. An interwoven series of stairs and passageways meant you could travel from one end of the enclave to the other, without ever touching ground.

Despite its dystopian appearance, extreme poverty and unsanitary conditions, many of the residents remember the place fondly. Most of them recall a close, community spirit, spawned from shared poverty and closeness. In fact, in 1963 when an early attempt was made by the Hong Kong government to tear down the city, the residents formed an anti-demolition committee and successfully resisted the authorities.

However, by the 1980's the squalid conditions had become too much of a concern for the authorities and a joint Sino-British declaration in 1984 set the Kowloon wrecking ball in motion. Despite protests, the government spent HK$ 2.7 billion on relocating the residents. By 1992, the city was empty. Just two years later, it was razed to the ground and replaced by a traditional park; however, not before it was documented by fascinated architects and photographers alike. Today, the only indicator of the site's eccentric history is s small scale-model of the cluster that used to stand there.

https://www.archdaily.com...lled-city/

Thank you for this info, I'm going to ask my relatives who are from Hong Kong.

So interesting, I bet they have some stories.

S2DG said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

It has been twenty years since the demolition of the Kowloon Walled City. To mark this, the South China Morning Post has created an info-graphic that details the facts and figures of what life was like inside this architectural oddity.

The Kowloon walled city was like a glitch in the urban fabric of Hong Kong; a solid 2.7 hectare block of unrestrained city. Depending on who you ask, it was a Bladerunner-esque slum or a poor, but tight-knit community. Either way, for the best part of the last century, it was the most densely populated place on earth, with 3,250,000 people per square mile, compared to Hong Kong's mere 17,000.

The site of the walled city dates back hundreds of years. Spending most of its life as a Chinese military outpost, the Chinese hung on to the KWC when Hong Kong was leased to the British in 1898, as its location, right in the middle of the territory, made it easy for them to keep an eye on the new tenants - an idea which didn't sit too well with the British.

What transpired next was decades of confusion and diplomatic sensitivity, as both countries sought to claim sovereignty over the area. It came to a head at the end of WWII when the Japanese, who had captured the city, surrendered. China announced it's intention to fully reclaim the site, causing floods of refugees to flee there and creating unease with Britain who intended to continue as it had before.

To avoid putting further strain on relations, both countries developed a 'hands-off' approach to the city, leaving the enclave more or less ungoverned by police, building codes, health laws, or any other form of regulation. The population of the city boomed as refugees and small businesses flocked there to take advantage of this new city where you didn't need a visa, a licence to operate, or to pay any tax.

The population surge continued unchecked, while politicians, for the most part, stood back. The government provided water mains and mail delivery to the city, as well as orchetrating a series of raids in the 1970's to root out the Triads who had taken control of the city's various brothels, casinos and opium dens. By the 1980's, the population stood at 33,000, with most people sharing apartments of 250 sqft or less with several other families. The vast majority of the complex's 350-odd buildings were between 10-14 stories tall and devoid of any input from architects, planners or engineers; their height was restrained only by the proximity of Kai Tak airport.

Between the buildings there was a dense labyrinth of crevice-like alleyways, many only 1-2 meters wide, where sunlight rarely made it down to ground level. When navigating this network, residents would carry umbrellas to protect themselves from water dripping from leaky pipes above. An interwoven series of stairs and passageways meant you could travel from one end of the enclave to the other, without ever touching ground.

Despite its dystopian appearance, extreme poverty and unsanitary conditions, many of the residents remember the place fondly. Most of them recall a close, community spirit, spawned from shared poverty and closeness. In fact, in 1963 when an early attempt was made by the Hong Kong government to tear down the city, the residents formed an anti-demolition committee and successfully resisted the authorities.

However, by the 1980's the squalid conditions had become too much of a concern for the authorities and a joint Sino-British declaration in 1984 set the Kowloon wrecking ball in motion. Despite protests, the government spent HK$ 2.7 billion on relocating the residents. By 1992, the city was empty. Just two years later, it was razed to the ground and replaced by a traditional park; however, not before it was documented by fascinated architects and photographers alike. Today, the only indicator of the site's eccentric history is s small scale-model of the cluster that used to stand there.

https://www.archdaily.com...lled-city/

Thank you for this info, I'm going to ask my relatives who are from Hong Kong.

So interesting, I bet they have some stories.

WOW that would be really cool if you came back with some stories.

There should be a Sci Fi movie made about this place. Blade Runner:Kowloon Walled City

OldFriends4Sale said:

S2DG said:

Thank you for this info, I'm going to ask my relatives who are from Hong Kong.

So interesting, I bet they have some stories.

WOW that would be really cool if you came back with some stories.

There should be a Sci Fi movie made about this place. Blade Runner:Kowloon Walled City

Mom said she was aware of this place but it was away from the main part of the city (by the airport) and that it was for the extremely poor. The city was always on them for lack of building codes, illegal electricity and other safety issues but that's all she knew.

Wish I had more info, this fascinates me.

I've been enchanted by the concept of Mortal Engines. The idea of cities and communities on wheels or anything that moves.

Traction Cities.
Traction Cities are vast metropolises built on tiers that move on gigantic wheels or caterpillar tracks. These cities hunt smaller cities (in order to tear them apart for resources and fuel) which in turn hunt towns which in turn hunt villages and static settlements. This practice is known as Municipal Darwinism, which was a philosophy created by then chief engineer of London Dr Crumb and is based on the evolutionary theories of the ancient philosopher Charles Darwin.

Traction Cities range in size from enormous metropolises (or Urbivores) with populations of millions, to tiny villages and hamlets propelled by small engines or even sails. Airships have become the most common method of transport in this new era, as they are the only practical way to travel between cities - actual heavier-than-air aeroplanes became an extinct technology after the Sixty Minute War (although the technology was rediscovered during either Fever Crumb's time and the war between the Traktionstadtsgesellschaft and Green Storm, it was never mentioned to be used for anything other than fighting aircraft).