Design team Chimera has conceived of an incredible series of spiraling skyscrapers for London modeled after the complex ecosystems created by the mangrove tree. Dubbed Mangal City, the project is an “urban ecological system” composed of modular pod capsules that shift to adapt to environmental and contextual conditions.
While such breathtaking visions can be wondrous and inspiring, the reality might be quite different. Elites would live in these presumably ultra-high security structures and be serviced by the rest of us. They’d have little reason to go outside and walk around, so the surrounding areas would probably become urban wastelands, except for support businesses for those living inside the pods.
You want to make class differences utterly clear, obvious, and in everyone’s face? Then build structures like these pod skyscrapers. But spending on affordable housing and mass transit seems a better way to go.
They also make good targets…