REPRESENTATIONS of the URBAN FUTURE



A fascination with the potential size of the urban environment is present in all the movies. The films play up the idea of urban growth. This is an assumption of the future that stems from the fact that the urban environment has, for the most part atleast, only been experienced in growth. Even the movies that depict the future state of a city that exists today in a very recognizable fashion stress urban expansion. I-Robot presents a Chicago 37 years in the future that has strong associations with the existing city but with major developments. The recent construction of the fictional USR Headquarters, the tallest building in Chicago, is stressed in the movie. The urban core has also been densified with new towers and the urban infrastructure has grown extensively with massive underground tunnels. The same is true of Renaissance 2054, the Paris 48 years in the future has been densified extensively. At moments in the film, the footage focuses on huge urban platforms that hover over the ground and the new expressway that cantilevers over the historical Siene River, which we assume must be the result of a lack of free space in other parts of the city.

In the 1927 version of Metropolis, a city existing around the year of the 2000 is presented. The intent was to design a believable city of the future. The city it presents is enormous, portraying an urban scale that is far greater then anything that existed at its time. Massive towers stand in close proximity to each other. Extensive transportation networks run through the metropolis. In the film their is a clear fascination with the potential size of the urban environment.

In the 2001 version of Metropolis, an even greater urban scale is envisioned. The cinematography is a bombardment of the industrialized urban environment. There is little differentiation between inside and outside but rather the whole movie seems to take place within one massive urbanized complex. Similar to its predecessor of 1927, a major percentage of this metropolis exists below ground level. The subterranean world is revealed to a much greater extent in the later version as the action of the film passes through its multiple zones. In Metropolis (Tezuka 2001), the relationship of human scale to urban scale is unfathomable.

Blade Runner begins with the depiction of Los Angeles in the future through a series of aerial angles. The scenes are dark and no boundary to the urban environment is apparent. In the movie, neither the city itself nor any other city on earth is referenced. However, the viewer is informed of off-world colonies through advertisements. The audience is encouraged to speculate that the entire world is one global urban environment. This speculated urban globe is uncanny even though many people live their lives primarily within a city. The two primary reasons for this are that there is no escape from the human construct and because this speculation is so plausible.


(I-Robot/2004)


(Renaissance 2054/2006)



(Metropolis/1927)



(Metropolis/2001)



(Blade Runner/1982)