Future Shock

While recently driving one of my college-aged kids back to school I was subjected to listening to his iPod. As a person interested in music I am always up for hearing new and different things. However there is one band that I always ask him to change almost immediately. But on this occasion I finally asked him ‘OK what is it with this music?’ I was informed it is called ‘post rock’ and was voted one of the best albums (Sunbather) of the year in 2013 by Pitchfork. The band is called Deafheaven, which I later learned is categorized as ‘black metal’ with post metal and shoegazing influences. Who knew? So I hung in there like a good dad and listened to the entire cut. Clearly it is an acquired taste. However, what struck me about this band and a couple others I heard on that trip was its post apocalypse feel, perfect for one of those dystopian movies that have been popular of late.

Which of course got me to thinking, what has been your reaction to the future cities that these movies and other similar movies predict to be the future? Everyone dressed in white? (The Giver) The top 1% are living in the top of high rises while the masses are living at the dank dark bottom. (the classic Blade Runner takes place in 2019 … are you ready?) Picture London as depicted in the latest Star Trek movie, St. Paul’s looking more like St. Patrick’s in New York, at the bottom of a canyon of super high rises, no longer gracing the sky line. What about Bruce Willis’s apartment in The Fifth Element? How about the Hunger Games series; the elite dwellers in the shinning Panem seem to be going to a Halloween party every day (what’s with that)? So, are these projections of our future cities within the realm of possibilities or just meant to shock?

 
Image from the film Blade Runner

Image from the film Elysium

Image from the film Inception

Image from the film Star Trek: Into Darkness

I’m not so sure. 100 years ago 2 in 10 people lived in cities the rest in the country and by 2010 it was 50/50. By 2050 it is projected to be 7 in 10 of us will be city dwellers. Maybe the incredible density of the cities in these movies is not so far off the mark. I, for one, was amazed at the images of Shanghai in the last James Bond movie; spectacular neon lights, modern glass and steel buildings, but the density! A great place to visit, but I could not imagine living there. Am I a product of the post war baby boom generation? The American dream is a white clapboard house with a yard and a picket fence, a spouse, 2.4 kids and a golden retriever. By the way, is the picket fence to keep the dog in or the neighbors out? Anyway, without unbelievable sprawl this is a dream that, in the near future, will be a fantasy for most.

So what of Boston? It’s a beautiful 19th century city that is slowly seeing taller and taller interlopers creating greater density. Is it inevitable that we will see the equivalent of Piano’s ‘Shard’ appearing on the horizon one day? How tall is that building that is going to replace the aquarium garage anyway? Or will we all be under 5 feet of ocean due to sea rise? (An aquarium in every first floor.) Clearly things will not stay the same, the city we all love will evolve, hopefully for the better, but bigger is not always better and isn’t that inevitable? Or should we close the door, not let anyone else in and send them all to Worcester? No, I think not.

How will you deal this the 40% increase in the number of people living in Boston over the next 35 years? Move 50 miles out of town, buy a cute house on a couple of acres and hope the commuter rail doesn’t get too expensive. Buy a condo on Beacon Hill and complain about handicapped ramps destroying the ambiance? Or move to a new high rise and hope your view is persevered for a few years? What of our responsibility as designers? Embrace the future growth or preserve some sense of the historic past? Get involved in the evolving nature of our city or just watch whatever happens happen?

Back in college I read Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock published in 1970, a book about the ever increasing change in society and our inability to deal with it. People dropping out to live in the 80’s or whatever time period suited them. For some reason this book always stuck with me, maybe I should read more. Some 40 years on … is Toffler correct? I am starting to wonder if there will be a time when I will want to drop out, move to Vermont and live in, say 2017, for the rest of my years? Never upgrading my iPhone7 and watching Homeland and Modern Family reruns. Avoid the future and live in my chosen present?

Probably not, but I am concerned, as depicted in those dystopian movies, that the Boston of our future will no longer have the character we all know and love. Will everyone be dressed in white and smiling all the time? In Boston? Hardly! Or will it be more of a dense canyon city with the rich at the top and the rest of us sloshing around at the bottom? Unlikely. However, it will be different. As soon to be empty nesters, my wife would like to sell up and move into the city, me, I think I will dig out an old copy of Future Shock, crank up some ‘black metal’ and think about it some more before making the commitment to what could be an uncertain quality of urban living.