Walking city
Encyclopedia
The Walking City was an idea proposed by British architect Ron Herron
in 1964. In an article in avant-garde architecture journal Archigram
, Ron Herron proposed building massive mobile robot
ic structures, with their own intelligence, that could freely roam the world, moving to wherever their resources or manufacturing abilities were needed. Various walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger 'walking metropolises' when needed, and then disperse when their concentrated power was no longer necessary. Individual buildings or structures could also be mobile, moving wherever their owner wanted or needs dictated.
, a mobile town of support personnel, restaurants, saloons, and various recreation facilities (laundry, gambling, dance halls, etc.) followed the railroad; the town was colloquially known as Hell on Wheels
.
Various types of ships resemble walking cities in function and in scope. Seacraft are the largest vehicles ever built by humans, and thus the only ones that have reached a scale compatible with Ron Herron's original concept.
Aircraft carrier
s are the only modern device closely resembling a walking city in concept or scope. An American
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier holds over six thousand crewmen and is over a quarter of a mile long. An aircraft carrier could be considered a walking city whose primary resource or function is that of an aircraft maintenance, supply and launching center which moves about the globe fulfilling its function where it is most needed while stopping occasionally for resupply (Glassco, 2004).
The world's largest cruise liners are also equipped to hold thousands of people, with all the amenities of modern life - including shopping malls, ice rinks, radio and television stations and wedding chapels; however, they are not intended for the extended living that military vessels such as aircraft carriers are.
After audacious projects such as the Freedom Ship
have failed, the only serious attempt to emulate a floating city is Seasteading
, which aims to create permanent dwellings at sea, outside the territories claimed by the governments of any standing nation.
proposed in 1989 that a mobile base or city on the moon
could move to remain constantly in sunlight, allowing the use of solar power
and avoiding the darkness and cold temperatures of the lunar night. He later suggested that the same concept could be used on the planet Mercury
, where a mobile base or city could be used to avoid sunlight by staying in the temperate twilight region near the terminator, although this concept had previously been anticipated by the science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson
in 1986.
On Mars
and the moon, Robert Zubrin
proposed that landing vehicles could be equipped with legs such that they could "walk" across the surface to link up to form larger habitat units.
Ron Herron
Ron Heron was a notable English architect and teacher. He was perhaps best known for his work with the seminal English experimental architecture collective Archigram, which was formed in London in the early 1960s...
in 1964. In an article in avant-garde architecture journal Archigram
Archigram
Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group formed in the 1960s - based at the Architectural Association, London - that was futurist, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical projects...
, Ron Herron proposed building massive mobile robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
ic structures, with their own intelligence, that could freely roam the world, moving to wherever their resources or manufacturing abilities were needed. Various walking cities could interconnect with each other to form larger 'walking metropolises' when needed, and then disperse when their concentrated power was no longer necessary. Individual buildings or structures could also be mobile, moving wherever their owner wanted or needs dictated.
Railroad cities
During the building of the U.S. transcontinental railroadFirst Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
, a mobile town of support personnel, restaurants, saloons, and various recreation facilities (laundry, gambling, dance halls, etc.) followed the railroad; the town was colloquially known as Hell on Wheels
Hell on Wheels
The phrase "Hell on Wheels" was originally used to describe the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the American transcontinental railroad in the...
.
Floating cities
Aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
s are the only modern device closely resembling a walking city in concept or scope. An American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Nimitz-class aircraft carrier holds over six thousand crewmen and is over a quarter of a mile long. An aircraft carrier could be considered a walking city whose primary resource or function is that of an aircraft maintenance, supply and launching center which moves about the globe fulfilling its function where it is most needed while stopping occasionally for resupply (Glassco, 2004).
The world's largest cruise liners are also equipped to hold thousands of people, with all the amenities of modern life - including shopping malls, ice rinks, radio and television stations and wedding chapels; however, they are not intended for the extended living that military vessels such as aircraft carriers are.
After audacious projects such as the Freedom Ship
Freedom Ship
Freedom Ship was a floating city project initially proposed in the late 1990s. It was so named because of the "free" international lifestyle facilitated by a mobile ocean colony, though the project would not have been a conventional ship, but rather a series of linked barges.The Freedom Ship...
have failed, the only serious attempt to emulate a floating city is Seasteading
Seasteading
Seasteading is the concept of creating permanent dwellings at sea, called seasteads, outside the territories claimed by the governments of any standing nation....
, which aims to create permanent dwellings at sea, outside the territories claimed by the governments of any standing nation.
In space
Geoffrey A. LandisGeoffrey A. Landis
Geoffrey A. Landis is an American scientist, working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on planetary exploration, interstellar propulsion, solar power and photovoltaics...
proposed in 1989 that a mobile base or city on the moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
could move to remain constantly in sunlight, allowing the use of solar power
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
and avoiding the darkness and cold temperatures of the lunar night. He later suggested that the same concept could be used on the planet Mercury
Mercury (planet)
Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
, where a mobile base or city could be used to avoid sunlight by staying in the temperate twilight region near the terminator, although this concept had previously been anticipated by the science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
in 1986.
On Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
and the moon, Robert Zubrin
Robert Zubrin
Robert Zubrin is an American aerospace engineer and author, best known for his advocacy of the manned exploration of Mars. He was the driving force behind Mars Direct—a proposal intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission...
proposed that landing vehicles could be equipped with legs such that they could "walk" across the surface to link up to form larger habitat units.
In fiction
- The four novels in Philip ReevePhilip ReevePhilip Reeve is a British author and illustrator. He presently lives on Dartmoor with his wife Sarah and their son Samuel.-Biography:...
's Mortal Engines Quartet (Hungry City Chronicles) include large mobile Traction Cities that travel across the world, devouring each other to gain fuel and other resources. - A massive city travelling along equatorial rails around the planet MercuryMercury (planet)Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about its axis for every two orbits...
is the setting for a minor part of Blue Mars, the last book in the Mars TrilogyMars trilogyThe Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson that chronicles the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars through the intensely personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters spanning almost two centuries...
of Kim Stanley RobinsonKim Stanley RobinsonKim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
. The city is pushed along by the slight yet powerful expansion of the rails as the close-by sun shines on them (with the city always just staying within the planetary night), moving the city once around the planet every 88 Earth days. The same city appears in Robinson's early novel The Memory of WhitenessThe Memory of WhitenessThe Memory of Whiteness is a science fiction novel written by Kim Stanley Robinson and published in 1985. It shares with the Mars trilogy a focus on human colonization of the solar system and depicts a grand tour that travels from the outer planets inward toward the Sun, visiting many human...
. - There is a similar arrangement in Timothy ZahnTimothy ZahnTimothy Zahn is a writer of science fiction short stories and novels. His novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo award. He is the author of nine Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including seven novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound...
's Heir to the EmpireHeir to the EmpireHeir to the Empire is the first book in a trilogy of novels known as The Thrawn Trilogy, all written by Timothy Zahn.-Description:The book is set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi...
, where Nomad City avoids Athega's light by continually moving over the surface of Nkllon. - In Alastair ReynoldsAlastair ReynoldsAlastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...
's Absolution GapAbsolution GapAbsolution Gap is a 2003 science fiction space opera novel by Welsh author Alastair Reynolds. It takes place in the Revelation Space universe and is a direct sequel to Redemption Ark.-Plot summary:...
, vast cities circle the moon of Hela to keep the planet Haldora in view, in case "the Miracle" – the momentary disappearance of Haldora – occurs again. The mobile cities are called Cathedrals and are devoted to worship of the Miracle, which they believe is God's message to humanity. - In Christopher PriestChristopher Priest (English novelist)Christopher Priest is an English novelist and science fiction writer. His works include Fugue for a Darkening Island, Inverted World, The Affirmation, The Glamour, The Prestige and The Separation.Priest has been strongly influenced by the science fiction of H. G...
's novel Inverted World a city on a "hyberbolic" planet is continually moved on rails to keep it at a particular location—which itself moves—where conditions are "normal". - Greg BearGreg BearGregory Dale Bear is an American science fiction and mainstream author. His work has covered themes of galactic conflict , artificial universes , consciousness and cultural practices , and accelerated evolution...
's novel The Strength of Stones is set in the declining years of a planet of motorized cities that ejected their inhabitants. - Storm ConstantineStorm ConstantineStorm Constantine is a British science fiction and fantasy author, primarily known for her Wraeththu series.- Life and work :Since the late 1980s Constantine has written more than 20 novels, plus several non-fiction books...
's novel Calenture takes place in a world of mobile cities that fly, walk or move on wheels, guided and powered by "pilot stones". - The computer game StarcraftStarCraftStarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
features an interstellar empire of humans that use collections of mobile buildings to assemble ad-hoc cities in space and on land.
External links
- Freedom Ship International, Inc
- A BLDGBLOG article about walking cities, including illustrations from Herron's original Archigram article