As my studies progress, our assignments and projects grow lengthier, thus the time between postings here on the blog would probably grow larger and larger. I have therefore decided to begin posting about stuff that interests me in the architectural sense, that is not directly connected to my studies - Spare time interests if you will. This post is about an exhibition called "Postcards from the Future" and is currently exhibited at the museum of London till the 6th of March this year. Since I'll be visiting London next week (and possibly this specific museum) I thought I'd share this.
The exhibition is as the name "Postcards from the Future" implies, an exhibition about the future of London. To be more specific, it is about a dystopian London, that has been affected by global warming to an extreme degree. The exhibition features fictional visualisations of a (perhaps realistic) London that has been ravaged by natural catastrophies such as floodings and extreme weather conditions. Furthermore, it also simulates immigration tendencies as a result of global climatic change. When third-world populations are left with barren lands and hunger, they might at some point breach the fortified walls of Europe and immigrate in massive numbers, causing nightmarish infrastructural results. The picture below - yet another from the exhibition - illustrates this issue, (to a rather extreme degree perhaps, but you get the picture) through a London which is quite litterally flooded with slums, or shanty towns, as the exhibitors have named them.
Whether or not the future of London and other European cities will be such, well, only time can tell I guess. But with rapidly rising global populations and shortage of food (and rising prices of the mentioned), this scenario may just be frighteningly realistic. There is no doubt that future urban planning and architecture will be strongly affected by such global conditions and fortunately, it seems that the problem is in focus amongst many architects, city planners, designers, etc. Let's just hope that we're finding solutions faster than the issues are growing!
Further reading: http://www.london-futures.com/
- Andy Minchev
