An Experiment in Theoretical Urbanism

Imagine a full functional city of optimal population density (roughly six million residents) - one that operates on subway alone, has zero congestion, and absolutely no water pollution all developed in a matter of 4 years. Impossible, you say? Well, maybe in the real world, but Vincent Ocasla’s sheer calculation and planning over the past several years has enabled him to accomplish just this - via Sim City 3000 - 1.5 years of these feat were spent on theory and planning, and 2.5 years on construction.

While Ocasla’s city was built to be non-destructable, ultra-efficient and the ultimate utopia, we should mention there are a couple of critical flaws to this development if translated into reality.

Just to name a couple:

All of the citizens of this city are miserable.
There is a signficant price to pay for sim citizens to live in a city with the highest population -including suffocating air pollution, high unemployment, no fire stations, schools, or hospitals, and an extremely regimented lifestyle.

Focusing on one objective, one may end up neglecting, or resorting to sacrificing, other important elements. The life span of average citizen of Osasla’s city is only 50 years. When asked about this, he responded, "Health of the sims was not a priority, relative to the main objective.”

Read the full article at: http://www.grist.org/list/2011-05-02-what-can-we-learn-from-the-worlds-m...