Sifting through my seemingly endless amounts of Twitter feeds I cam across a link from the Architecture Report that piqued my interest (http://thearchitecturereport.com/the-clockwork-city). The Clockwork City utilizes circular planes that rotate portions of the city that moves locations that at one moment the furthest point from the daily commuter to the closest point. They say after a 10 minute waiting period for the portion of the city you need to rotate will create a maximum walking time of 8 minutes to your desired destination. The video from the link reminded me of the cities designed in the Final Fantasy games that I played in my youth. I am not sure if this was created by a designer who was a gamer, but the first thing I found when Googling “Clockwork City” was a wiki page for the Elder Scrolls: Tribunal video game. Coincidence or not the idea, although impractical in many cases, dances with the imagination.
A few criticisms from Digitalurban.org (a few links down from the Elder Scrolls Google Link http://www.digitalurban.org/2011/07/clockwork-city.html) is that the energy and transportation of goods and services would make the creation of such a city impractical. Necessity is the father/mother of invention and these problems can be addressed through technological innovations. One criticism was restocking supermarkets and delivering heavy materials to constructions sites. It would be difficult in the pedestrian Clockwork City to effectively bring these materials to their customers. Most of the time these materials require trucks to transport them to their end destination, to be off loaded by heavy machinery. The History Channel provides a solution yet again when the recently ran a show that explored advancements in neurosciences. Neuroscientists are developing technologies that can create movement in a paraplegic through the use of a computer. This is just the first step in the creation of an exoskeletons that can make a paraplegic walk, or enable super human strength. The exoskeleton mentioned on the History Channel fixes the delivery problem. Another criticism was fire departments and emergency personnel getting help to people who need it. First, ambulances mainly respond to car accidents, and without cars in the city their demand is reduced. Nonetheless emergency personnel would get to people in need, safer and faster than our current methods. Plus the placement of medical and fire services addresses that criticism. Though my solutions sound like something out of science fiction, the essence of imagination is the broadening of the mind to frontiers that push humanity to better ways of living.
Think of the ever-changing landscape and skyline of a Clockwork City. The very concept inspires realistic innovations with our current technology. I can not help but think of a green house with a rotating floor enabling a regulation of sun exposure for plants. Picture a park where people sit while the landscape rotates around them providing new views every 10 minutes. This can be done at a smaller scale in one of our current cities. The advertising writes itself, can you say “Clockwork Park?” I know it is difficult for us to push our imaginations to these frontiers when the space program is marginalized, and practicality is the solution to economic strife. I would like to challenge industry leaders to remember that imagination is the most valuable commodity when trying climb out of a recession.
Best Regards,
Chris Henry
Designing Henry 