io9: Urbanism

The Most Cyberpunk Places in the U.S.A.

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:30:00 PDT

Cyberpunk is no longer the future. We're living in an age in which many of the visions of creators like Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Pat Cadigan and Ridley Scott are invading our world today. More »

Stunning Shots of the Real-Life Hong Kong Locations Featured in Ghost in the Shell

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:00:00 PDT

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When adapting the Ghost in the Shell manga into an anime film, director Mamoru Oshii chose to turn the real-life streets of Hong Kong into a hyper-stylized, dreamlike city of the future. What's astonishing is that Oshii captured the real Hong Kong so well in his submerged metropolis. More »

Automatic streetlamps switch on when cars pass, switch off when traffic ceases

Rebecca Boyle - Popular Science — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:00:00 PDT

In a huge city, lighting the streets is a necessary but pricey precaution. Pedestrians and motorists are no doubt safer when streetlamps, not just car headlights, illuminate roadways and sidewalks - but streetlamps are expensive and inefficient to run. More »

Video reveals an incredible reconstruction of what Washington, DC looked like 200 years ago

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:30:00 PDT

Full of farms and shacks, the capitol city of the United States wasn't exactly imposing 200 years ago. Politicians lived three to a room in modest boardinghouses, and the White House was surrounded by a fence to keep out wandering cows. More »

Dark City, Cool Art: Awesome Neo-Noir and Urban Fantasy Cityscapes

Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:00:00 PDT

When you're in the city that never sleeps, you might want to keep one eye open at all times. Many of the best futuristic cities and urban fantasy stories take place in dark, dystopian cities. More »

Detroit's Future Challenge: How to Shrink a City

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 13:30:00 PDT

Could Detroit's dilemma be the wave of the future for other atrophying U.S. cities? The New York Times reports that the Motor City is facing an urban planning crisis nobody expected: how to make the city smaller. More »

How to stop the water wars of 2050

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:51:19 PDT

Urban population growth is skyrocketing. The majority of people on Earth live in cities, and most of the water they drink has to be shipped in. Scientists say that by 2050, many cities will have seasonal water shortages. More »

Where Picasso Lives

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:30:00 PST

These Rotterdam houses function as living quarters and as challenges to physical reality. They were built in the eighties by architect Piet Blom. Downstairs are shops and offices. Upstairs are private apartments, full of weirdo Escher fans. [Via Polyglot Travel.] More »

See a church standing on its head

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 07:30:00 PST

The somewhat controversially-titled(?) Device to Root Out Evil is a structure in Vancouver, Canada. Dennis Oppenheim's upside down church was kicked out of New York and Stanford before it came to rest up north. [Via Unusual Architecture.] More »

A massive cross-section map of the Walled City of Kowloon

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:30:00 PST

As you may have noticed, we're obsessed with the Kowloon Walled City. Prior to the labyrinthine city's demolition, a Japanese research team drew up this huge cross-section map. It's in Japanese, but it's nonetheless astounding. [Deconcrete via William Gibson] More »

Beijing never sleeps

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 09:30:00 PST

Northern China sparkles at night, in this photograph taken aboard the International Space Station. That's Beijing on top, and Tianjin at bottom right. When you read how China's tripled its electricity usage in a decade, think of this image. [NASA] More »

Incredible claustrophobic footage from inside the Kowloon Walled City

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:35:09 PST

Our millennial cathedrals: The greatest works of architecture since 1980

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:30:00 PDT

Check out the sensual curves and dazzling sheen of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, designed by architect Frank Gehry. It's the most significant work of architecture in the past 30 years, according to experts. Check out some others below. More »

The subterranean sprawl of New York City's Freedom Tunnel

Cyriaque Lamar — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:00:00 PDT

For much of the 20th century, New York's "Freedom Tunnel" was an unused rail tunnel that housed a homeless community and the occasional graffiti tagger. Trains run through the tunnel nowadays, but metro-spelunkers still venture down into this underground cathedral. More »

Scenes from a drowned London, 2030 A.D.

Cyriaque Lamar — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:48:33 PDT

These illustrations by Anthony Lau depict a floating London made of refurbished oil rigs and recycled ship hulls. Lau designed this maritime city at London's Bartlett School of Architecture as a potential solution to rising sea levels. More »

Futuristic cars inspired by Syd Mead's Blade Runner designs

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:06:55 PDT

The next generation of concept artists is paying tribute to the master, Syd Mead, who reinvented cars and city living in his work on Blade Runner, Tron and other films. Here are our favorite entries from CGSociety's Syd Mead contest. More »

Welcome to Hooker Mountain: San Francisco's crime rate as topographical map

Cyriaque Lamar — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:40:00 PDT

Doug McCune has charted San Francisco's crime rate topographically. Crimes like prostitution and narcotics peak in certain areas (Shotwell Street and the Tenderloin, respectively). San Franciscans, do you live in Strumpet Heights or Teetotaler Valley? More »

Utopian urban planners want your city to be like a new iPad

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:00:00 PDT

A great essay over at Crosscut.com explains why two different schools of utopian city planning in Seattle both try to ignore the city's present-day realities and historical features: More »

Welcome to Xanadu, the (foam) house of the future

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:55:11 PDT

Throughout the 1980s, tourists flocked to the Xanadu House, a futuristic home in Kissimmee, Florida. This domestic pleasure dome was made of polyurethane and filled with "friendly computer servants." More »

The (Literal) Street Art Of Japanese Manhole Covers

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 16 May 2010 09:00:00 PDT

In Japan, 95% of the 1,780 municipalities boast unique manhole covers showcasing historical events and local color. Photographer Remo Camerota has captured the Japanese proclivity to place this public art underfoot. More »

Atomurbia: The Most Spaced Out Neighborhood In America

Cyriaque Lamar — Sun, 09 May 2010 10:00:00 PDT

In 1947, Life magazine published an article on how to atomic bomb-proof America: by spreading the entire population across the nation checkerboard style and burying all industry underground. The cost in 2010 money? $5 trillion. [via Ptak Science Books] More »

The Secret Underwater City In The Heart Of Minnesota

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 09:30:00 PDT

A parody site created back in the 1990s claims there's a giant underwater city within "the crystal clear waters of the Minnesota River." And people have been visiting from as far away as Texas to discover the Atlantis of Minnesota. More »

10 Weirdest Urban Ecosystems On Earth

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:18:48 PDT

Cities are havens for weirdness. From communities built around garbage to dogs that ride the subway, urban environments have fostered all manner of weird patterns. Here are the 10 freakiest urban ecosystems on the planet. More »

The Walled City Where Sunlight Couldn't Reach

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:00 PDT

A dystopian megacity, in which buildings merge together to become a single solid block, is the stuff of science fiction — but it already happened, in Hong Kong. The Kowloon Walled City was packed so tightly, it became an arcology. More »

Excavations Begin on Syria's 7000-Year-Old Metropolis, Known As "Zaidan"

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:00:00 PDT

The prehistoric cultures of Mesopotamia gave rise to literacy, bureaucracy, agriculture, and modern cities. And now a nearly-untouched city in Syria will give us a peek at what urban life was like 7000 years ago in the so-called Ubaid period. More »

This Vast Ocean City Was Supposed To Be Our Salvation, But It Could Be Your Tomb

Charlie Jane Anders — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:00 PST

In the near future, we'll all live in tightly packed arcologies, including ocean cities — where we'll shoot at each other and fire rocket launchers in the air. This gorgeous "seagoing eco-city" comes from the first-person shooter Brink. More »

Los Angeles Is More Science Fictional City Than New York, Says Charlie Huston

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:00 PST

Charlie Huston's new novel Sleepless is the most science-fictional thing he's ever written. And he partly credits the influence of moving from New York to Los Angeles, because L.A. is a more science-fictional city. Let the debate begin! More »

The Future of Vancouver Takes Shape

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:30:00 PST

In the misty distance is the gleaming sphere of Science World, and in the foreground is Vancouver's ultra-green Olympic Village, which planners say will hold 16,000 people by 2020. They'll eat food grown on roofs and drink reclaimed rainwater. More »

A Bicycle Superhighway With Timed Lights for Copenhagen

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:15:00 PDT

Copenhagen is already one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, with 55% of its citizens riding a bicycle daily. Now the question is how to get commuters from outlying areas biking too. The answer is the bicycle superhighway. More »

Bruce Sterling And Jeff VanderMeer Offer 2 Lessons On How To Build A Science-Fictional City

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:00:00 PDT

Science-fiction fans and writers, alike, tend to think of cities in too simplistic a fashion. Quotes from The Caryatids author Bruce Sterling and City Of Saints And Madmen author Jeff VanderMeer explain how you should really view urban infrastructure. More »

Welcome to the Future Metropolis

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:30:00 PDT

Cities contain highly-concentrated human activity. That's why they represent our glorious, high-tech future - and threaten us with dystopian social collapse. This week on io9, our Future Metro section explores the wonder of cities in fiction, art, and real life. More »

Is The Bike City An Alternate Universe, Or A Glimpse Of Your Urban Future?

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:27:15 PDT

Amsterdam is the future - if you think that cities devoted to bicycle transportation are the next step in urban evolution. More »

The Most Fantastical Cities On Earth, As Chosen By Ursula K. Le Guin And Michael Moorcock

Charlie Jane Anders — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:00:00 PDT

Their books take you to strange cities from other planets, alternate histories and mythical realms. But what real-life cities inspire Ursula K. Le Guin, Michael Moorcock, Nalo Hopkinson and China Miéville? The SharedWorlds project found out, with fascinating results. More »

The Same Cityscape According To Star Trek And Terminator Salvation

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:30:00 PDT

Mega-nerd Protohiro compared screenshots of the exact same view of San Francisco from the Star Trek and Terminator Salvation trailers. Here's Trek's super-bright, super-big Frisco. Click through to see Terminator's gloomy, Skynet-infested version. More »

Star Trek's Future San Francisco Would Never Get Past The Board Of Supervisors

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:00:00 PDT

Most people saw the massive cityscape in the new Star Trek trailer, and drooled. But not San Francisco activists, who've battled to keep mega-buildings out. Did Starfleet scrap our zoning laws? They ask. More »

The Cities Bloomed with Mushroom Tops That Drank the Sun

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 08:30:00 PST

Cities whose power comes from the sun must grow into these organic shapes. Homes cling like fungus to tall, fat stalks, and solar panels stretch awkwardly open above each neighborhood. More »

Forget The Shiny Toys — Urban Transit Will Go Low-Rent

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:14:45 PST

Whenever public planning types talk about urban transportation's future, they always discuss light rail or tiny electric yuppie-mobiles. But future urbanites will really get around in the cheapest, most low-overhead manner possible. More »

Remains of a 1500-Year-Old City Uncovered in Amazonian Jungle

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:09:36 PDT

A 1500-year-old Amazonian city, full of artificial lakes, large public plazas, and agricultural regions (including fish farms), is being excavated and mapped for the first time in modern memory. Until recently, the remains of the ancient city had been almost completely hidden by jungle. A group of Brazilian and U.S. researchers report in tomorrow's issue of Science that they used satellite photos to determine that the now-vanished city was structured as a group of small towns connected by roads, ditches, and shared farmlands. The researchers say the lifestyle here was clearly "urbanism," and compared it to cities that one might have seen in Ancient Greece or medieval Europe. More »

The Venus Project Has Your Future Planned for You

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:31:09 PDT

If you're a fan of the Bioshock game, where a subaquatic Utopian society goes terribly wrong, you'll be weirdly drawn to the futurist gang behind real-life think tank The Venus Project. They've got a whole plan for optimizing society, using planned communities and cultural engineering. And the best part is that they've got a seriously googie 1950s futurism vibe going in all their designs. So space age! So wonderful! Check out your future Utopia, below. More »

Want to Live in a Real-Life Waterworld City?

Annalee Newitz — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:00:42 PDT

The so-called Freedom Ship, a floating city of thousands, is an idea that has been tossed around for a while. Now the Freedom Ship company has a new set of designs for the floating urban space, which looks sort of like a giant mall parking lot, and sort of like a really giant Love Boat. Here you can see the new design of the ship. The designers estimate they'll have it built in three years. Here are some of the specs on this giant ship city. More »