building downwards

The other day, I was watching some program on Nat-Geo or discovery - mega-structures - I think. They were showing the tallest structures in the world, and how, since 9/11, the structural designs are being reconsidered given that they need to be capable of withstanding huge impacts.

A few apartment buildings are coming up in my locality - which primarily consisted of row-houses till now. I don't know how legal they are, but this means that the remaining houses get less light and air. Not to mention the problem of people discarding trash from their balconies etc.

The first impression of US that I remember is just the feeling of wide open space. Living in a suburb of Chicago, I was delighted by the amount of sky I could see. No clutter of phone lines, power lines and myriad other cables with the occasional tattered old kite hanging off the wires; No skewed electricity posts held together by faded posters from a hundred past elections and a thousand past candidates - liberally sprinkled with excess lime and betel-nut juice if they happen to be near a pan shop. Just blue skies.

Recently, in Calcutta, I went to a layout where the rule is that no one is allowed to build higher than two floors - to ensure that all houses have enough light and air. They also have very stringent requirements regarding the amount of open space that must be left on each side of the house during construction. This was very refreshing, after having lived in Bangalore for a while, where people go as high as they want and build as close to the next plot as they can - any land you leave free might be encroached on by someone else - hence understandable perhaps.

Well, anyway, all these different things came together in a flash of inspiration this morning. Not sure what triggered it. Wasn't feeling too well, woke up late and was munching down some breakfast that I had thrown together, staring at the TV, when I realized that it would be nice if cities grew downwards rather than upwards. That would take care of all these problems.

I realize that building a mantle-scraper instead of a sky-scraper has its own problems. The cost of construction would be a lot higher, the water table for the area could get impacted ... and so on and so forth.
But think of it - even in the high rises, despite the windows, artificial lighting is generally used throughout the day. Most of them are air conditioned and the windows are not really meant for letting in air either. Most of them are death traps anyway, and being above ground does not really make it any easier to leave the building in case of exigencies.

So, instead of building high, why not dig deep?

All the soil that comes up from the excavation can be used for landscaping over the building site. So, the deeper a building goes, the higher the mound over it will become and this can be fashioned into a garden and landscaped etc to make the city look more beautiful.

We can have forests over the busiest parts of down town. Roads can be as wide as you want them to be - if we opt for more surface roads to clear the traffic congestion. All surface dwellings should be only one or two floors high at best ... only residential houses and such ... small shops perhaps ... or the syndicated ones that choose to operate from smaller outlets.

I don't know ... just a thought ... a lot of people have come and gone and if no one has thought about it or done it, I guess the associated costs must be prohibitively high or perhaps there are more problems involved than I am willing to consider.

It brings a lovely image to my mind though ... thousands of people working in one place ... but able to come out for a lunch break and enjoy pristine pure nature :)

A dreamer once... a dreamer always...