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Retro-Future: Glorious Urbanism


"QUANTUM SHOT" #328
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Read the first part here

When living in mega-cities was considered a privilege

That gleaming Metropolis on the horizon? - Something to aspire to, the glorious destination to dream about, to shape your life accordingly and reach it as the utmost reward... Such ideas were popular in the infant days of futurism, in fantastic literature on both sides of the Atlantic.

Thankfully the "mega-urbanism" dream is replaced today by quite the opposite idea of an affluent living in the country - but frankly, both seem to be unattainable, clean-cut ideals that's only pretty to look at. And look at them we will - presenting again the rarely-seen examples of urbanism and architecture, some from the Eastern Bloc "popular science" publications and promotional literature.
Click to enlarge most images


(TM, 1967, Russia)


(illustration to works by A. Kazantsev, 1939-1956, Russia)


(art by Frank R. Paul, 1933)


The Dark Monumentality of Hugh Ferriss' Gotham Style

First, let's cover the basics. The whole "Gotham/Empire" style in architecture really took off after the conceptual work by High Ferriss. His 1929 book "The Metropolis of Tomorrow" influenced the whole generation of architects, with its moody, colossal projections, destined to forever haunt the dreams of would-be dictators and power-mad superheroes:















His works are currently on exhibit, more info here.


Skyscraper Canyons as Reflection of State's Power

Mega-urbanism and colossal architectural dreams of the 1920s and 1930s, in my opinion, reflect the general society's drift toward collective ideals. All Hail the Empire, ruled by (hopefully) benevolent tyrant and powered by the mind-boggling feats of technology. The life of an individual in these visions is indeed microscopic and not to be considered against the backdrop of titanic activity of the masses.

Skyscraper canyons were obligatory part of urban visions from the 20s and 30s:


(Fritz Lang's famous "Metropolis" movie, 1927)






(images from Futurama and "Just Imagine" movie, info)


(image credit: Ryan Bliss, DigitalBlasphemy)


People's Palaces of Socialist Bliss

Soviets had similar gigantic aspirations in architecture, as demonstrated by the well-known Palace of the Soviets design:


(cover TM, 1952, Russia)

That Lenin's statue is proposed on a truly grandiose scale:



Large-scale architectural dreams and conquest of space are combined in this highly evocative Communist cover from 1954:


(cover TM, 1954, Russia)

America had very strange conception of Soviet's architectural ambitions during the Cold War:



The Soviets, however, dreamed large:


(TM, 1970, Russia)



(TM, 1967, Russia)

Note the super-highways, this was definitely very popular transportation vision in the 50s-70s:


(art by Syd Mead, from his book "Sentinel")


(image credit: Klaus Burgle)

US Pavilion Design in the 60s:




An interesting concept for parking: rotating hexagonal cells for each car -




(TM, 1975, Russia)

Flying Cities
(as envisioned by Russians in 1971)


(TM, 1971, Russia)

More rosy urbanism to be found in the Western pulp and promotional literature:


(image credit: Klaus Burgle)


(image credit: Plan59)


(art by Arthur C. Radebaugh)


Illustration by Joe Tillotson, to "Robot: Unwanted" by Daniel Keyes
Other Worlds, June 1952


Bubble cities were a distinct feature of the 50s science fiction:


(cover, Urania 1959, Italy)

Urban Futuristic Interiors

So what's inside cool apartments of the future? Sample Danish designer Verner Panton's rad Sixties interiors:




(images credit: Joel Johnson)

Urbanism turned out to be quite a different proposition than we imagined seventy years ago. There are numerous reasons to stay away from soul-numbing mega-city projects. Overpopulation, however, dictates its own rules, and we are going to see many super-structures to be built in the world in the coming years. Perhaps we'll see the visions of Frank R. Paul come to life, after all.

Next issue will cover retro-futuristic ideas for transportation.



CONTINUE TO NEXT PART

READ THE FIRST PART HERE

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COMMENTS::

13 Comments:

Anonymous anonymouscoward said...

Hello,

the 2nd picture in this post (the b/w sketch) http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2084501870&size=o

struck me because the guy's ears look like Mr. Spock's -- just that this is 30 years before. Amazing.

That said: as usual this DRB post was delectable. Thank you very much and please do keep up the good work.

Anonymous.Coward

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Blogger josephlovesit said...

This is one of the coolest features I've seen online in quite a bit! Please keep them coming.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

The 6th pixture from the bottom ("original unknown") is from Arthur C. Radebaugh. http://images.google.de/images?q=+site:www.palaceofculture.org+radebaugh

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Anonymous www.SoScooter.com said...

These are all really cool... and I think some of the ideas could really become reality. Of course... we're now into an era of increased interest in public transit (which is good).

The thing is, though, that most cities evolve organically (aside from the roads in the grid-style of North America) and therefore don't usually turn out looking uniform like in the visions. Architects don't even design their buildings to match well with neighboring buildings that are already up!

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Blogger Craig said...

One of the best collections of such images I've seen. Can't wait for the transportation.

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Blogger jayessell said...

The photo of the man talking to a woman pilot is from the musical-comedy-science fiction (3 things that don't go well together) film "Just Imagine", 1933.

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Anonymous willythesquid said...

Another great post by this blog. I love how much original content there is, and their daily link post is always classy and interesting. The gotham-style concept art is amazing, and I can see why it was groundbreaking then. While viewing those pictures, I was reminded of the visual style of the concept art for the "People's Palaces of Socialist Bliss" that I stumbled upon a good while ago - and lo and behold, there it was, a bit further down. Thumbs up!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Could the future be any cooler? Love this stuff.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi
i think the 'flying cities' are supposed to be on venus
(my russian is quite bad though)

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Blogger dms said...

actually working on automatic parking garage in Sao Paulo, I interested in this russian peoject of rotative parking. Do you have other information about, like the name of the arquitects, year, etc...

thank U +++ dms +++

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Blogger Avi Abrams said...

dms, thank you for your interest - this was a concept in the early 1980s, I don't think it was given any further development... No other info so far.

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Blogger naoyuki said...

You missed the nice one, Nakagin capsule tower by Kisyo Kurokawa. it's not 'unbuilt'. still there in tokyo since the era. nice feature!

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thankfully we don't live in megastructures and are instead raping the countryside through automobile dependent suburban sprawl? I hardly think so! Bring back the ideas of Paolo Soleri!

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