Can Planet Cities Really Exist? (Coruscant Explained)

Summary

This video explores the design of an Ecumenopolis, a city planet, focusing on optimizing urban space through a network of interconnected 'cores' and balancing density with open, green spaces. The concept highlights sustainable development, including efficient transportation, waste recycling, and cooling systems. The speaker discusses strategies like fractal design, autonomy for local hubs, and decentralization to avoid central bottlenecks. Ultimately, the goal is to create a livable, adaptable planet-city that thrives despite imperfections, emphasizing flexibility over rigid perfection.

Takeaways

• 😀 Coruscant, as depicted in Star Wars, is a prime example of an ecumenopolis: a city that spans an entire planet, with trillions of inhabitants living across thousands of vertical levels.
• 😀 Coruscant is built on extreme vertical hierarchy, with distinct layers for the wealthy upper levels, dense middle levels, and the underworld filled with slums, black markets, and illegal industries.
• 😀 The concept of a planet-wide city has real-world architectural roots, notably in the ideas of Constantinos Doxiadis, who coined the term ecumenopolis and believed in planning for large-scale, continuous urban growth.
• 😀 Unlike Trantor from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, Coruscant's city-building strategy is to continuously build upwards by adding new mega levels every few centuries, instead of digging downwards.
• 😀 A true ecumenopolis must balance density with accessibility, which Doxiadis achieved by creating human-scale communities, which tessellate into linear corridors, eventually connecting into a planet-wide network.
• 😀 While Doxiadis theorized that an ecumenopolis could theoretically hold up to 223 billion people, Coruscant's extreme density reaches a population of 1 to 3 trillion due to its use of thousands of vertical levels.
• 😀 The logistical challenges of such a city are immense, with systems for food, water, waste, and power being extremely complex and requiring extensive infrastructure and coordination across the planet's layers.
• 😀 Coruscant's waste management involves launching garbage into space, with massive pits across the planet where waste is compressed and then shot into orbit, creating a staggering amount of space-bound waste.
• 😀 Cooling an ecumenopolis like Coruscant presents challenges due to the enormous heat generated by 1 trillion people. Solutions like massive ventilation shafts and thermal barriers are necessary to avoid overheating.
• 😀 The transportation system on Coruscant is a three-dimensional, complex choreography that varies between private airspeeders for the wealthy and public transport for the masses, with strict regulations on altitude and travel between levels.

Q & A

What is the main concept discussed in the video regarding the future of cities?

The video focuses on the idea of designing a futuristic city that can handle extreme density, sustainability, and adaptability. It introduces the concept of an 'ecumenopolis', a citywide planet or urban environment, which aims to balance the challenges of density, resource management, and environmental sustainability through decentralized hubs, multiple cores, and green spaces.

What are the advantages of creating multiple cores in a city?

Multiple cores help distribute density and demand more evenly across the city, preventing overcongestion and reducing pressure on a central location. They allow for better resource management, such as cooling, power, and waste disposal, and facilitate easier access to transit and services, while also enabling more localized decision-making and autonomy for individual neighborhoods.

How do the 'finger plan' and the green infrastructure help in city design?

The 'finger plan' divides the city into transit hubs (red), spines (yellow), and surrounding neighborhoods (white), while green spaces (green) are preserved for environmental benefits. These green areas act as lungs, cooling the city and absorbing stormwater. They also have productive uses like farming and energy recycling, contributing to the city's sustainability and resilience.

Why is flexibility and adaptability emphasized in the design of a city?

Flexibility and adaptability are crucial because a city, especially on a planetary scale, cannot be perfectly planned or micromanaged. Urban environments, like the clones in the Star Wars universe, evolve and adapt over time. Cities need to be designed with room for mistakes and imperfections, allowing them to adjust organically as needs change and new challenges arise.

What does the speaker mean by 'fractals' in city design?

Fractals in city design refer to repeating patterns or structures that can scale infinitely across different levels of the city, from individual blocks to entire regions or even the entire planet. These patterns provide order and consistency, but the speaker also stresses the importance of addressing the 'glitches' or imperfections that naturally occur at the seams of these patterns.

What role do green areas play in urban planning according to the video?

Green areas are essential for maintaining environmental balance within a city. They help with stormwater management, cooling, and air quality. Furthermore, they serve as productive landscapes where organic waste can be recycled, and they promote sustainability through practices like urban farming and energy reuse.

How does the speaker address the issue of economic disparity in dense cities?

The speaker acknowledges that while multiple cores can alleviate congestion, the wealth gap may still persist. Popular cores may become overcrowded and expensive, pushing lower-income populations to less desirable areas. The challenge lies in balancing growth with equity and ensuring that the benefits of decentralization reach all areas of the city.

What is the significance of 'centralized vs. decentralized' control in city management?

The video suggests that the central authority should set broad rules for urban planning and infrastructure but should not micromanage every detail. Local communities and neighborhoods need the autonomy to make decisions tailored to their specific needs. This decentralized approach fosters adaptability and responsiveness, making the city more resilient.

Why is the idea of a 'citywide planet' proposed instead of just a traditional city?

The concept of a 'citywide planet' is proposed because it addresses the extreme density and scale of future urbanization. It suggests a holistic, integrated approach to urban development, where the city operates as a living organism that can breathe, cool, and sustain itself across vast areas, combining multiple cores and green spaces for balance.

How do the principles from Copenhagen's finger plan apply to an ecumenopolis?

The principles from Copenhagen's finger plan are applied by using a decentralized hub-and-spine model to manage urban density. In an ecumenopolis, this would mean having multiple transit hubs and networks spread across the city, with green spaces and productive landscapes ensuring environmental sustainability, ultimately making the city more livable and adaptable over time.