A proto-arcology

Dannyalcatraz · Aug 3, 2015

Saw this on CNN: an entire town living in one building.
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/07/us/whittier-alaska-american-story/

It is like a tiny foreshadowing of a possible future. Arcologies- communities in which everyone lives in a mostly self-contained habitat- are a staple of so many Sci-Fi stories set on earth or other planets. And here we see a tiny Alaskan community almost living that lifestyle already.

Joker · Aug 3, 2015

Judge Dredd is drooling right now.

tomBitonti · Aug 3, 2015

Very interesting, although, I would imagine not unique. But maybe, since the weather extremes work against outbuildings.

A little sad: The community is basically squatting on an abandoned military outpost. (But, nice example of re-purposing, which maybe could be used as an example of what happens in evolution.)

I wonder what the community will do when the building needs a major repair. Prudence suggests that they should make an extra effort to renovate the other building.

Thx!

TomB

Ryujin · Aug 3, 2015

I've thought for years that I could easily see myself living in an arcology. "Oath of Fealty" bt Niven and Pournelle is one of my favourite books.

In a place like Alaska it makes perfect sense to have one large building, rather than dozens of smaller ones. the overall surface area is smaller so the heat loss is minimized, if the building is properly insulated. Running water pipes is particularly problematic in north climates, so centralizing habitation makes perfect sense. As we deal with more and more urban sprawl, it doesn't make sense to live 30 miles away from where you work. Mass transit just doesn't seem to grow at the needed rate and you can only have so many roads, and private vehicles. I spend more that 2 hours a day on the roads to get to and from work, which is roughly a 60 mile round trip. Most of that distance is on highways, so I'm averaging less than 30 miles an hour on limited access highway. There is a better way.

Janx · Aug 3, 2015

that's kind of cool.

Seems like the town could form a team to renovate that other building, but I reckon asbestos abatement is too complicated.

Sounds like a pricey place to live as well. I should think that the point of such a place is to be cheaper cost of living.

tomBitonti · Aug 3, 2015

I thought that Alaska generally had a relatively high cost of living, because of weather and bethe added cost for imports. But partly offsetting this are very generous paybacks for resources (oil and gas payments).

Thx!

TomB

Dannyalcatraz · Aug 3, 2015

It sounded like the asbestos issue made renovating the second building an unfeasible option.

Tonguez · Aug 3, 2015

Pretty cool (although as a country boy I'd likely hate it), does anyone know how they handle their food supply? is it all imported or grown on site?

Janx · Aug 3, 2015

Dannyalcatraz said:
It sounded like the asbestos issue made renovating the second building an unfeasible option.

yeah. I wonder how the first building didn't have it...

Ryujin · Aug 3, 2015

Janx said:
yeah. I wonder how the first building didn't have it...

It likely does. If they make any changes they would have to remediate the areas in which work is being done, but not the whole thing at once.

A proto-arcology

Dannyalcatraz

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