What's your opinion on arcologies? Basically an arcology is an extremely large building, sufficient to maintain an internal ecology as well as an extremely high human population density.

For example, the Ultima tower:
Some information about it: http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html

http://www.tdrinc.com/images/photos/large/Towers04a1.jpg

The south-facing side of the building has a strong emphasis on open garden balconies and expansive park areas. At the forest levels biological technology plants use sunlight to break down human waste and compost for recycling back into the soil. The building is like a great expanse of natural land turned upward with ten large forest, lake and stream sanctuaries brought up into the sky.

The tower is surrounded on all sides by a lake. Sandy beaches, stone cliffs, water inlets, grass, trees and rocky islands create a beautiful and majestic setting. Two six-lane bridges carry vehicles to the underground parking with its 20 levels of parking. No internal combustion vehicles can operate on the immediate site of the building. Only electric cars, propane and hydrogen gas vehicles and bicycles can be used by its one million inhabitants. A large marina surrounds the building on the east and west sides. Pedestrian walkways and running/bicycling paths abound through hills and dales, grassy knolls, forests and fields. Beaches are easily accessible from any area and small pedestrian bridgeways connect the main building island with smaller islands and the mainland. Persons can hike 11/2 to 2 miles from the building to the mainland. A four-lane roadway surrounds the lake making spectacular opportunities to view the building from the lake's edge.

All residential neighborhoods are located at the outer and inner edge of the building closest to views panoramic views and/or sunlight. The square footage between the neighborhood zones are reserved for retail or commercial use depending upon location. Internal taxi cab vehicles carry persons from one end of a floor to the other end at the larger diameter lower floor levels. Taxi drivers would be paid by the home and business owners association so that drivers are residents of the building who earn a livelihood from working there.

no thanks

No thanks Ill take sprawl.

No thanks, I hate going to another part of "town" in an elevator.

an arcology doesn't nececarily have to a building but a community or city that is self-sustaining and has little impact on the surrounding environment.

an arcology doesn't nececarily have to a building but a community or city that is self-sustaining and has little impact on the surrounding environment.

An arcology refers to a vertical structure (according to Dictonary.com), but if we took cities/communities into consideration here, then Sydney has somewhat of an arcology - the Olympic Village was turned into a self-sufficient suburb with very little dependance on anything else (apart from water). If more suburbs/areas were like that, then I'd be in favour of it! The system functions very well from what I've been told. That huge vertical structure in that image above though isn't very aesthetically pleasing on the exterior, though it would probably look interesting inside. I wonder how plants would photosynthesise effectively though.

What's your opinion on arcologies? Basically an arcology is an extremely large building, sufficient to maintain an internal ecology as well as an extremely high human population density.

For example, the Ultima tower:
Some information about it: http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html

http://www.tdrinc.com/images/photos/large/Towers04a1.jpg

The south-facing side of the building has a strong emphasis on open garden balconies and expansive park areas. At the forest levels biological technology plants use sunlight to break down human waste and compost for recycling back into the soil. The building is like a great expanse of natural land turned upward with ten large forest, lake and stream sanctuaries brought up into the sky.

The tower is surrounded on all sides by a lake. Sandy beaches, stone cliffs, water inlets, grass, trees and rocky islands create a beautiful and majestic setting. Two six-lane bridges carry vehicles to the underground parking with its 20 levels of parking. No internal combustion vehicles can operate on the immediate site of the building. Only electric cars, propane and hydrogen gas vehicles and bicycles can be used by its one million inhabitants. A large marina surrounds the building on the east and west sides. Pedestrian walkways and running/bicycling paths abound through hills and dales, grassy knolls, forests and fields. Beaches are easily accessible from any area and small pedestrian bridgeways connect the main building island with smaller islands and the mainland. Persons can hike 11/2 to 2 miles from the building to the mainland. A four-lane roadway surrounds the lake making spectacular opportunities to view the building from the lake's edge.

All residential neighborhoods are located at the outer and inner edge of the building closest to views panoramic views and/or sunlight. The square footage between the neighborhood zones are reserved for retail or commercial use depending upon location. Internal taxi cab vehicles carry persons from one end of a floor to the other end at the larger diameter lower floor levels. Taxi drivers would be paid by the home and business owners association so that drivers are residents of the building who earn a livelihood from working there.


Looks like a huge organic base built by alien invaders rather than a human city.

well I wouldn't mind that arcology.

Not 'Citytalk'

An arcology refers to a vertical structure (according to Dictonary.com), but if we took cities/communities into consideration here, then Sydney has somewhat of an arcology - the Olympic Village was turned into a self-sufficient suburb with very little dependance on anything else (apart from water). If more suburbs/areas were like that, then I'd be in favour of it! The system functions very well from what I've been told. That huge vertical structure in that image above though isn't very aesthetically pleasing on the exterior, though it would probably look interesting inside. I wonder how plants would photosynthesise effectively though.

most cases it is a single structure such as a tower but more broadly it is a confined built community; artifical cities

btw, this topic is right up my alley. i have a masters degree in futurolgy and am heavily into urban development.

@ tubeman, this should have been left in original forum as arcology has more to do with cities than skyscrapers. :)

It's kinda neat to have one, though it'd be pretty ugly to look at. I've seen some on Discovery Channel (projected for Tokyo) that look pretty nice. Still, it's a bit too SimCity 2000 for me, and this one looks like the Tower of Babel a bit.

It's just ugly :sly:

X-Seed 4000 looks much better and is taller too (13,100 feet). The Shimizu Pyramid also is more attractive and it can house 750,000 to one million people.

This thing looks like a gigantic termite mound - and it probably works like one, too. :sly:

Give it a chance. I think the first picture is just bad because it looks much better here: http://www.tdrinc.com/images/photos/large/2mile1.jpg

Tell the Canadian govt. We want settlement in our North (for sovereignty claims) and to increase our economic base. We're in an election now too....;)

This is really the kind of development the area needs (not to that scale or anything) because it's just too cold to go around outside most of the year.

For the moon, yeah. I cannot see the need for a monstrous thing like that on planet earth, ever.