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3-D City

 Undo the limitations of a 2-Dimensional world
  (+17, -7)(+17, -7)
(+17, -7) 		  [vote for,
against]

I know what you're thinking - "But... my city already has three dimensions. Are you living in a paper town, funky?" However, consider the following:

Due to the oppressive force (or plain-old acceleration - choose your theory) of gravity, the majority of human beings are sadly limited to a two-dimensional playing field - a plane, say. We can walk left or right, forward or back, and (yes, sometimes) up or down - BUT ONLY IF THE PLANES ON WHICH WE WALK ALLOW FOR US TO DO SO.

I think the dream of flight has something to do with breaking the bonds of this world of oppressively dull planes. However, short of flying, the best thing we could do would be to shrug off our outdated, archaic style of architecture, which assumes that people like to stay on the ground. Imagine: A city where staircases are not the only option of going up. Every building, inside and out, has a variety of climbable appendages - ladders, rock climbing grips, perhaps even weird artistic growths. It would be a world where the funky things sprouting from walls would not be for looking at, but for experiencing. The limits of our movement would be defined only by our creativity.

The potential dangers of such a city might be presented as being numerous. I see ways of dealing with this, if need be. Rather than concrete, we'll be using some complex polymer - perhaps something like Nerf, but harder - that's easy to grip yet soft to fall on. As well, nets could be strung across the streets at various levels - or perhaps "bildering" (yes, already a sport) could be taught in schools so that everyone in this society would be an expert. Hey, it can't be much more risky than cars.

—funky_strings, Jan 17 2005

Farewell Horizontal http://www.oivas.com/kwj/k-farewell.html
A similar idea is explored in this novel by KW Jeter [jaksplat, Jan 17 2005]

Sidewise, I'm sure... http://odesenho.no....ls_des-piranesi.jpg
[cloudface, Jan 17 2005]

you mean like this? http://www.parkour.org.uk/
[zeno, Jan 26 2005]

better yet http://perso.wanado...kour/parkourfrance/
[zeno, Jan 26 2005]

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       that humans are very well suited for a lot of vertical ascents and descents in our everyday lives. Humans seem to me to be designed for planar lives.
—bristolz, Jan 17 2005
   

       I was hoping this would be a city where skyscrapers had roads intersecting on the level where skyways would be. Essentially one gigantic enclosed building that uses skyscrapers as pillars.
—Aq_Bi, Jan 17 2005
   

       Fantastic. I see a lot of profit in this for velcro.   

       If enough of a buildings was filled with elastic netting, it would probably be safer than modern buildings.   

       I wonder what sort of transportation would be poular in such a city?
—tiromancer, Jan 17 2005
   

       Tackling obesity head-on: we would all be fit and lithe in this free-running world. It does raise some issues about the elderly, disabled and very young, probably nothing plenty of escalators and lifts couldn't solve.
—wagster, Jan 17 2005
   

       Laptops, brief-cases and shopping bags would be made considerably smaller and come in ergonomically designed cases.
—zen_tom, Jan 17 2005
   

       tiromancer, I just did a search in the halfbakery for "trebuchet" and was rewarded with many ideas for transportation in such a city! Real complimentary brainstormin I'd say - (altho "tackling obesity head-on" suddenly sounds a whole lot more frightening)
—JungFrankenstein, Jan 18 2005
   

       Start your city by designing a house. 10 x 20 feet and 6 stories high. Lots of ladders, dumb waiters, fireman's poles, slides, chutes, catwalks, lifts, and single-person elevators.
—robinism, Jan 18 2005
   

       Learning to scuba dive stretched my limits of dimensional thinking. I'm now more comfortable with the manner in which I appear to be falling when I descend, and standing on my head in midair is great fun, and amuses the seals as well.   

       It's fun to fly out over a ledge and slowly fall.....
—normzone, Jan 18 2005
   

       hm, check out "free running" / "parkour" - in fact we live in the 3D city already. You just have to be very, very fit, and probably crazy. But it's beautiful.
—bumhat, Jan 18 2005
   

       Not to downplay the appeal of that kind of thing, but I would like to die on a less regular basis.
—tiromancer, Jan 18 2005
   

       Just so you know, when I think of "Adult Theme Park," I think of about fifty better uses for 10 bucks than dissuading pickpockets.   

       That said, and back on track, I like the idea. Perhaps that could be part of the employment application. "Well, Mr. Jensen, your resume looks good. Why don't you take it up to the thirtieth floor. No, not through the door. Right out this window..."
—shapu, Jan 18 2005
   

       Idea is baked, sort of. Not in the way that cities are modified but some people modify their viewpoint of the city and do just what you propose. It's beatifull!   

       (see link)   

       Ah, overlooked Bumhats' annotation.
—zeno, Jan 26 2005
   

       Imagine! Double helical stairs, seconds away from a new neighborhood, if you want.   

       A hallway to the "subway" 150' above ground, but hidden under the 3D construct.   

       Walk or tram! No cars, imagine how intense such a compact construct could be!   

       Take away the parking lots and roads for cars. Look at the beauty of the hill towns of Italy and Greece. IMAGINE what could be.
—Zimmy, Oct 13 2011
   

       "Where do you live?"
"53rd, 5th, and 18th."
"Oh, you're in the upside-down district!"
—phundug, Oct 13 2011
   

       I'm surprised nobody's likened this to 'Dark City' yet.
—Alterother, Oct 13 2011
   


 

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