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Posts Tagged ‘Envisioned’

Pretty in Pink: Trump’s Border Wall as Envisioned by Mexican Architects

22 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Donald Trump has promised that if he becomes President of the United States, he’ll build a “beautiful and impenetrable” wall and force Mexico to pay for it – so a group of Mexican architects have taken on the task of designing it for him, too. The firm Estudio 3.14 has envisioned the “gorgeous perversity” of the proposal in a vibrant shade of neon pink, a solid architectural ribbon running from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and packed full of prisons.

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“I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively,” Trump said during his candidacy announcement speech in June 2015. “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

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Estudio 3.14 presents a series of renderings of the structure in the various types of border landscapes one finds along that 1,954-mile stretch. The wall is painted pink in honor of Pritzker Prize-winning Mexican architect Luis Barragán. To understand exactly what the architects are getting at with this project, it’s best to hear it described in their own words.

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“Based on Trump’s statements, the economic, ecological and financial aspects have been called into question. However, he continues with his verbal plan. As architects and designers, we have the capacity to imagine and interpret what Trump is saying, and we are convinced that if we can make people see it, they can assess his words and the perversity in his proposal.”

“Because the wall has to be beautiful, it has been inspired in by Luis Barragán’s pink walls that are emblematic of Mexico. It also takes advantage of the tradition in architecture of megalomaniac wall building. Moreover, the wall is not only a wall – as you can see in the hill landscape cross-section it is a prison where 11 million undocumented people will be processed, classified, indoctrinated, and/or deported.”

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“The relation between the discipline of architecture and political perversity and/or megalomania has already been seen through previous characters such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, who relied on the imaginative architects of their words and the creators, who materialized their macabre ideas. The proposal is made from the disciplinary field that has worked, since the existence of humanity, for the status quo and benefits from this tradition.”

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[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Driverless Living Space: Future Car Envisioned as Mobile Room

14 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

driverless car in city

Blending elements of rigorous automotive and interior design, this concept car may look like a streamlined vehicle but is more akin to a communal living room on wheels on the inside.

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driverless car test model

Unveiled  by Mercedes-Benz at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, features include swiveling seats for conversing and viewing, individual touchscreen displays and interactive gesture-based interfaces for driving and recreating alike.

driverless car sitting relaxing

driverless car seating interface

driverless car exterior view

The exterior presents as a classy and aerodynamic sports car  with carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, aluminium and steel. Within, walnut, leather and glass make for a a likewise-luxurious but human-oriented set of materials and finishes.

driverless car interior view

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Of the design and its direction, Dieter Zetsche notes that “Anyone who focuses solely on the technology has not yet grasped how autonomous driving will change our society. The car is growing beyond its role as a mere means of transport and will ultimately become a mobile living space.”

driverless car sleek look

futuristic driveress car design

The open question remains: how much will cars of the future even look like cars on the outside? As platooning and other hive-like concepts are further explored, we may find vehicles look far different down the line than we might imagine.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Utopian ‘Private City’ Envisioned as Crime-Free Oasis

15 Jan

[ By Steph in Global & Travel & Places. ]

Guatemala Private Walled Utopia City 1

Could a utopian dream of a crime-free private city actually bring fears of fictional dystopia to life? Developers are currently building a white-walled 34-acre complex of apartments, shops, nightclubs, boutiques and restaurants that would offer a safe haven from the notoriously high crime rates of Guatemala City. Paseo Cayala will offer luxury living in a nation where most citizens make less than $ 300 per month.

Guatemala Private Walled Utopia City 2

This walled compound will theoretically enable its residents, living in apartments that cost between $ 260,000 to $ 800,000 each, to avoid the realities of life in urban Guatemala altogether. Paseo Cayala will be virtually independent – a livable, walkable dream community that the developers hope will eventually expand into ‘Cayala City’, in a 870-acre area just a bit larger than New York City’s Central Park.

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But just past those symbolically charged walls are the huts and shanties of the city’s poorest citizens. About half of Guatemala’s 14 million residents live in poverty. In a nation with one of the world’s highest homicide rates, it’s not hard to understand why some wealthier residents crave a place in which safety is not a concern. Unfortunately, though, arrangements like this can deepen class divides and cause even more strife in the long term.

What isn’t shared in publicly available information about the city is just how they plan to control who is allowed inside and who isn’t; low-wage workers will have to be brought in from outside to keep the private city’s essential functions running. Will there be armed guards? How will crime be defined in a community that prides itself on being crime-free? Do you think such a utopia can ever really be reality for long?

[See photographs of the city by AP photographer Moises Castillo at The Huffington Post.]

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[ By Steph in Global & Travel & Places. ]

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