^^^ Thanks, Aleks & Flamesrule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aleks
it's good that we have sketchup!!
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Ain't that the truth. I bow down and thank the Google Gods daily for being given the opportunity to play with such an awesome program. As for the theoretical real-life viability of a project such as the one which I am depicting, I would agree that - at best - it is a huge stretch; but at the heart of this, my goal is to create a salsa of Nationalism, Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Capitalism, and Consumerism portrayed against the backdrop of popular mythology such as New World Order Theory and Orwellianism; and yet to portray it in a world which developed in a way that is entirely different from anything that has ever really been explored in political thrillers/fictions of the past.
When I start novelizing this thought, it is going to be a story told from the point of view of a citizen living in New Babylon; and that is where this model comes in. The streets, the buildings, context, all need to be portrayed in a coherent way so that the world I describe is consistent and dynamic. In a sense, this is a surrealist political manifesto allegorized in 3-D with architecture. To be honest, I don't really care if it takes me a decade to finish this project. As a vital hobby that has been part of my life for two and a half years now, I won't be particularly surprised if it does. In any case, that is what makes it so much fun.
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At 2240' and 162 Stories,
Defiant Centre has risen as New Babylon's second tallest skyscraper and the centerpiece of Downtown Volksheim, the second building to exceed the height threshold of two thousand feet.
Defiant Centre houses the Propaganda Ministry, the new administrative office of the Department of the Architect of the Capitol (DAC), Civil Employment Support Services, and the Department of Imperial Social Services.
Here is the latest view of the cityscape, as viewed from the Northwest, future vicinity of New Babylon Airport (to be constructed on an artificial island in Eagle Beak Bay):
Flamesrule, here is an overview of the entire project. At present, I estimate that there is sufficient housing in the city for between ten and twenty thousand citizens. As a future metropolis with a target population in the tens of millions, suffice to say that residential development will continue to be in huge demand for a very long time:
...and so, you ask, with that awful lack of housing, who is doing the actual construction? The reality is that much of the work has been done by laborers from outside the city who are trafficed in and out by rail from a massive flash city on the other side of the bay which has not been featured yet. In eras to come, that town will evolve as New Babylon's primary suburb, but for now it is just worth knowing that it is there, a few miles to the west.
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A recession has caused progress to slow considerably; and no, I'm not just talking fiction. I'm talking about the fact that the size of the sketchup model has grown to 70 Megabytes, and my computer just can't handle it anymore.
As soon as I scratch up the money to get the new computer system which I require, the model will take off again like a rocket; but until then, new developments will be slow and segmented, completed in bits and pieces. I am declaring a partial hiatus on the main project with the assurance that it is by no means dead or dying.
My future renders will depict individual building complexes, city blocks, and things that I plan to eventually incorporate into the main model; but until the new computer becomes reality, these images are probably the last which you will see of the primary model. My CPU simply can't handle editing it, and my Memory can't handle rendering it all in one piece.
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My next post will feature an arterial and zoning map depicting my plans for the greater metro area.
A portrayal of New Babylon-United States territory boundries appears below, U.S. Territories in Blue, N.B. Territories in red. Trivia: those who dislike New Babylon often refer to its citizens as "NooBs". :