The Polar Cities Concept Catalyst

Thank you Danny Bloom for the references to Habitat: The Underground.

Northward ho blog reference

http://northwardho.blogspot.com/2009/06/habitat-underground-annika-lundkvist.html

Rantrave reference

http://www.rantrave.com/Rave/Habitat-The-Underground-The-Future.aspx

And I must confess, reading about Dan Bloom's "Polar City" concept and seeing Deng Cheng-hong's illustrations, was the catalyst for my joining the blogosphere. View "The Virtual James E. Lovelock Museum of Climate Retreat Living Pod Images" here.

I honestly felt a resurgence of hope in reading about an installation for human living that also involves a strong underground component, projected to be built in an amazing polar site on Earth- Longyearbyen.

Not specifically hope that it would be built- though yes, I do want to see it happen. But more, an excitement that the dialogue persists and ideas for underground architecture manifest in interesting ways. This is important for the present as well as future generations. In the future there will be individuals looking back to the early 21st century to see what kind of interesting concepts we have offered for human living and perhaps even survival. This is also one of many situations where looking to the past is extremely relevant as well. We are not the first to have ideas for underground or unusual living modules (or cities). And there will be more.

The possibility of underground architecture and space evolving requires the contribution of a wide range of folks- architects, engineers, "futurists", environmental psychologists, planners, designers. They're all part of the pie. A vigorous and constructive dialogue amongst these professions, and more, is paramount.