Asylum · 2009-02-28 21:32
Under the European Asylum Act of 2017, any square kilometre of land west of 18ºE with a population of less than 4000 was required to make room for quick-build housing for those fleeing the smog and casual radiation coming from Russia and China.
Remarkable new building techniques were developing in the late-10s, centred around acrylcrete, far stronger than any previous structural material, easily cut, which cures from liquid to solid in hours. It’s known popularly as ‘building glue’. Housing bricks were created at factories around Europe and helicoptered into place. Massive clamps became standard construction machinery, alongside the ubiquitous cranes. Once foundations were in place, a building could appear overnight, or in the case of Lyddle End’s Asylum, 6 days.
Due to the strength of acrylcrete, almost limitless different formations of buildings could be considered. Lyddle End’s structure was conceived after the weeks of asylum riots that greeted the first structures in the UK. It’s designed to be easily defended, with few ground floor entrances, and plenty of lookouts and spiral staircases.
The asylums became grudgingly accepted over the early 21st century, until their need disappeared due to geotransformation and environment cleansing. Indeed, some asylums were helicoptered east to the new territories, and people left the now-suburbia of the UK to find cleaner, better lives.
Original formula acrylcrete lasted 20 years at most, and many asylums collapsed or fell into deterioration. Some, like Lyddle End’s were patched up using more glue in a new formulation, parts of the structure were removed, and new features – such as the popular penthouse spiral – added in 2044. After being seen as cheap or low-rent housing for much of the 40s, asylums started to be seen as 21st century modern, and desirable places to live. From 2048, the Super Speed Train that stops at Lyddle End station meant that London could be reached in under 40 minutes, making Lyddle End a commuter town, and Asylum – a word whose original meaning has all but disappeared – the most expensive building to live in.
(more pictures here)
Artist’s statement:
All visions of the future are critiques of the present. Whatever happens will happen again.
One part Barbican, one part archigram, one part Habitat, with a sprinkling of asbestos, Daily Mail and the council housing on the Wandsworth Road.
For Lyddle End 2050.
comments
Even more reminiscent, to me, of the Doddington Estate on Battersea Park Road.
— James Bridle 2.03.09 #