Proposed by the inspirational architect group Archigram, the concept of ‘Walking City’ is perhaps not only a thought provocative and influential proposal but also something impacting human’s imagination and evolution of cities. As our world changes rapidly to a great extent, we must be prepared for unplanned events which risk our living. Where climate change, diseases, lack of resources become regular, the ‘Walking City’ migrates us away from these hazards as a massive mobile structure.
Yet, we may question the practicality of such an idea in our real world. Being portrayed in Sci-fi movies like the ‘Snowpiercer’ as a solution to an inhabitable world covered in snow, we see implementation into highly realistic scenes, bring somewhat technically impossible utopia into pictures. While this sci-fi might not be very accurate, it serves a more significant in human development, translating film makers’ creativity to test for us seemingly unrealistic ideas that might benefit us.
As we face more and more critical challenges from our world, some choose to ignore while some choose to work out a solution and respond. While sci-fi movie seems to be a fantasy, perhaps we should try to revisit them and discover valuable ideas that might help solve the detrimental issues in our real life.
Tang King To Anson u3579796
A good attempt to discuss the value of dystopias / utopias / sci-fi worlds in film and architecture which are often critiques of certain real-world situations at the time. Practicality aside, it would be interesting to study the approach that one takes – for example, Archigram took a high-tech pleasure-loving approach towards technological advancement and the culture of freedom and liberation; whereas Superstudio, another group of architects from the 60s, took a more cynical approach towards mass production in their work. The core issue discussed lies on the impact of technology which was heavily discussed in sci-fi cinema as well. As for Snowpiercer, although presented as a massive mobile structure like the Walking City, was a response to climate change and absolute authoritarianism. The creativity and imagination of the makers is certainly crucial in the success of translation. I appreciate that you have pointed out the common themes of sci-fi which Abbott noted in the text to discuss further in your response.