Explores how architects, artists and ordinary problem-solvers are pushing…
Great Expectations
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Great Expectations provides an astonishing journey through innovative, futuristic, utopian and sometimes bizarre architecture projects-including concrete illusions of grandeur and Lego-like modular apartments to an Instant City Airship and round, grass-covered subterranean dwellings-from the beginning of the 20th century to today.
Since the end of the 19th century, due to industrialization and rapid technological progress, mankind has been confronted with new problems and possibilities. Visionary architects and artists, motivated by contemporary problems, including housing shortages, urban decay and pollution, set about to create changes in our ways of living that challenged conventional concepts of the good, the true and the beautiful.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS introduces us to the most significant architectural movements and personalities of the 20th century, including, among many others, Le Corbusier's functionalist cities, Buckminster Fuller's lightweight geodesic domes, Moshe Safdie's Habitat '67 prefab apartments, Rudolf Steiner's Goetheanum and other anthroposophy buildings in Switzerland, Oscar Niemeyer's sleek urban designs for Brasilia, Paolo Soleri's 'archology' of crystal-like desert cities, Antti Lovag's curved surfaces of Palais Bulles in France, Jacque Fresco's utopian Venus Project in Florida, and Peter Cook and Colin Fournier's biomorphic Kunsthaus Graz in Austria.
Using archival and contemporary footage, animation and interviews, GREAT EXPECTATIONS tells the fascinating story of these grand architectural visions, both realized and unrealized, as explained by great thinkers with revolutionary, if not always successful, ideas.
'...an eye-opener for those wedded to conventional thinking about design and the way built environments and structures can interact with human beings and influence human behavior.'-Anthropology Review Database, December 2011
'Exciting... these architects seldom get the chance to speak freely in this way. This gives the content weight and lends plausibility to their visions... GREAT EXPECTATIONS gives one an appetite for visionary architecture.'-RUM
'Astounding images or more or less bizarre projects are intertwined with fantastic interview material... a documentary that treats the viewer seriously.'-Svenska Dagbladet
Citation
Main credits
Chilvers, Simon (Narrator)
Other credits
Cinematographer, Simon Pramsten; animations, MÍans Swanberg, Pistachios; music, Silverbullit.
Distributor subjects
Architecture; Art; Design; US and Canadian Broadcast Rights; Urban StudiesKeywords
WEBVTT
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[music]
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[music]
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Since the end of the 19th century industrialized man has been
confronted with new kinds of possibilities and problems,
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all of which in one way or another are the
consequences of a storm of technological progress.
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Amidst the smoke and wars architects
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and artists saw early on that this was a world
full of possibilities with plenty of room
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for visionary ideas. They
were motivated and driven
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by the problems of the day be it a
shortage of housing, urban decay,
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or pollution, or visions brought changes in our
ways of living and dwelling that challenged
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our concepts of the good the
truth and the beautiful.
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As industrial society spread over Europe Rudolf
Steiner sat in the Alps designing a building
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in which he wanted to reflect his belief in the
meeting between the scientific and the spiritual
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a project that changed the history
of building in concrete forever.
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[sil.]
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[music]
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[music]
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After World War II there was a
shortage of housing in Europe.
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(inaudible) thought that we should be able to produce quality
apartments at the same pace as Henry Ford produced cars.
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His preoccupation with efficiency
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and function lead up to the idea of a building
that you wouldn\'t even have to leave.
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[sil.]
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I created the Unité de Marseille which
cost me five years of terrible insults
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being treated as an \"anti-patriot\"
a lousy engineer… scandalous etc.
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It was extremely new, exceptional.
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It exploded to some extent in
a traditional environment.
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Le Corhousier disliked useless
things cluttering up a home.
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No ornaments, not tons of crockery.
He wanted essentials, simplicity.
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[sil.]
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The chairman of the Seine medical association said: \"Le
Corbusier will increase numbers of insane ten-fold.\"
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About the Marseille project,
they said: \"Tragic loneliness.\"
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\"The insane will increase ten-fold
due to overcrowding and the din.\"
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Yet there\'s utter silence. You see
no one, though 2,000 live there.
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[sil.]
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Waiting for lifts here is
like waiting for buses.
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So you\'ve time to get to know each other.
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And there\'s been a tenants\'
association since the first year.
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There was an internal phone. When
I got here, there was a line…
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you could call, flat to flat - no charge.
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[music]
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It was important that the buildings left room
for sun, space, and greenery for pedestrians.
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He even went so far as to suggest
laying roads on the rooftops.
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[music]
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No, sir, all this can\'t keep (inaudible)
from putting down his ideas.
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Something is going to add up here,
his own air conditioned castle
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with a deep breeze. Great big lawn
(inaudible) welcome him home.
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And the end of the fighting
overseas release millions
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of GI\'s divided home for someplace to live.
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Somewhere, somewhere, anywhere.
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I\'ve got (inaudible).
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An imaginative building
concern Levitt and sons had
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an idea about this problem, a new kind
of home was designed a quality house,
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but one that could be rented for $60 a month.
The key was assembly line construction
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of homes built on radiant heated
concrete slabs they guaranteed 2,000 of
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these rental homes to returned servicemen,
but the idea would expand far beyond this,
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this is where the suburban dream was born.
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We just looked at the house and
it looks nice so we bought it.
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And the salesman assured us that there are a whole alike
inside so you don\'t worry, you saw this one. It\'s okay.
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In five hours they sold 650
houses, and they\'ve built
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17, 447 in less than five years.
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[music]
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Then the early days the
houses were very much alike
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and men would come home late
at night and the wintertime
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and it would be dark. And one man he came in he
didn\'t even notice there was a different kitchen set
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he just sat down and the woman came out
and said who are you? And he said,
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\"Oh, this isn\'t my house?
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When I first mentioned to my
mother that I was coming out here.
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She said you\'re moving into the boondocks, you know,
and all of fishing cottage it will never last.
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How many years, 53 years.
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Originally Leavitt had that close in
when you took over the house no fences,
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and no clothesline, but then
people got dogs, and cats,
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and they felt that if they don\'t want it be
a pet to the neighbor they put up fences.
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At the very beginning
American government stated
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if any builder built
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more than 10 homes it would…
It\'s like a community
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they have to have all of one color.
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They thought it would be more harmonious
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if we were all Caucasian
or whatever you chose.
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But in those days all the Caucasians
had the money everybody else didn\'t.
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So William Leavitt chose
because of the FHA ruling,
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he chose to have a Caucasian only because
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that\'s where the money was. This was
at the very beginning in \'47 and \'48
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it was struck down \'49 but the damage
was done he was called a racist,
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he was called all sorts of names, but across
the nation it was that way everywhere.
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[music]
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At the beginning we were one car family.
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And that one car went with the
husband, all the husbands left
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and the whole town was women and babies.
I mean, where would you get a town
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where every body is at same
age, and stage of life,
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but to me that\'s the most
unusual situation ever.
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[music]
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(inaudible) traffic control frequency
one, three, two. The weather is clear
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and we\'re approaching Brasilia the capital
of Brazil which was conceived by architects
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Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer in 1956.
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This unique functionalist city
was built in only four years.
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[music]
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[music]
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[music]
00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:05.000
[music]
00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:15.000
[music]
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[music]
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[sil.]
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Lúcio Costa was so detailed in his plans
for Brasilia that he even wrote graves
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should be shallow and have plain tombstones
all without any signs of ostentation.
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[sil.]
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I think we (inaudible) by the
Puritanism of functionalism.
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[sil.]
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Within off the ground we did (inaudible),
instant cities, and walking cities,
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and non-cities, we did
a lot of anti houses.
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But because you were in love we did the
anti-house and it\'s rather like you.
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We proved the tree and
all the flower again.
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It\'s a rather great day
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as all it is too often now here in England.
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Instant City was the idea of bringing the
buzz of a city to a very small place.
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So that you took all the
sort of packaged museums
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(inaudible) visual information of a museum
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and the pop concerts and the buzz
of a downtown but you took it
00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
like a circus to a little place and then
for a short time that became the city.
00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
In a sense it was related to (inaudible)
notion that everything, you know, a person
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to be famous two minutes, town could
be famous could be a city for a week
00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
and then it would move on.
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
There was a whole conversation
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
what about Zeppelins around that time and I
said wait a minute that\'s a much nicer idea,
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just glide into the throwaway
description is that you would hear
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
a strange noise in the middle of
the night you would hear a motion
00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
in the sky and stop. And when you woke up
in the morning the city had descended.
00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
[music]
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You know in a way like a fairground, but
a kind of, kind of culture fairground,
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you know, culture.
00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
(inaudible) information learn French
in three days, this kind of thing.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:15.000
[sil.]
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
In a way if you imagine
as I can say no like
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a dismountable version of the
skin, of the grafts building.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:38.000
[sil.]
00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
Regard it like a dog like a
friendly dog in a basket,
00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
you know, the basket is graft and the dog
sits there. And it was my colleague Colin
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
who invented the term the friendly alien.
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
We wanted to have a complete mystery
container what they are like a capsule
00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
that we contain the theatre
of the surprise (inaudible)
00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
It\'s been in a lot of airline magazines and
00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
and popular magazines been in German
sex magazines and clothing magazines
00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
and funny thing that it\'s
somehow become a popular icon,
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:35.000
you know, and I like that because I think there\'s
a lot of cultural buildings hold the public off.
00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
[sil.]
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
Travelator is a thing that you
have in railway stations,
00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
and tube stations, and airports you
stand on it and it glides you up.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
And I like the fact that it has
that degree of (inaudible)
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
that rather gain in the stiff
thing and you walk up the stair
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
just glide up and see what\'s up there.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
[sil.]
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
We always had this notion that
it should talk back to the talk
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
and in the end we were able to do her 920
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
pixel points, but again because the budget
was low not an extremely elaborate lighting
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
we use bathroom, we use
normal florescent rings
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
such as you have Integrative
Nutrition exhale bathroom.
00:23:55.000 --> 00:24:03.000
[music]
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
And there have been films shown
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
that you can standup on the
castle and watch the movie.
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
[music]
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
It\'s not using some sort
of (inaudible) in the sky
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
extreme technology. I always say that
the building it\'s not high-tech,
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
we didn\'t have high-tech budgets
it\'s what I call crap tech.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
[sil.]
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
Expo 67 the greatest show on earth.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
Buckminster Fuller wanted to create conditions for
sustainable life on Earth by accomplishing more
00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
by using fewer resources his
mind expanding ideas became
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
very popular with the hippie generation. Amongst other
things he developed the extremely lightweight geodesic dome
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
of which more than three hundred
thousand have been built.
00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
The dome for the 1967 World\'s
Fair was 75 meters in diameter.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
I found got up calculation were
two mile diameter geodesic.
00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
You could not see that my compression
members in this dome in this altitude.
00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
There our building really like looking at a
aluminum kitchen say from a great distance.
00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
I found that the surface
of the building standing
00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
below my dome was 80 times the
surface of the dome it self.
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
So just set your cowlick
would reduce heat loss
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
in New York 84. I found out
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
that the at a half mile
temperature differential
00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
is only one degree Fahrenheit.
We push out enough air to weigh
00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
more than the rate of the structure itself.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
So that the atmosphere
inside plus the structure
00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
now raise less than air around it outside.
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
Therefore, like such things it has to
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
float (inaudible) rising. I got up to two mile
diameter, the amount of air has been put it out is
00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
so much that we have 5,000 people inside and still
we\'re floating right in the cloud like any cloud.
00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:33.000
[music]
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
You know, we knew that we\'re building
for World\'s Fair, but in my mind I said
00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
if we use be fabrication cleverly
perhaps we can make buildings
00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
as open as these for families
who want to live in the city,
00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
middle income families,
the majority of families.
00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
An apartment in the city housing project,
a place to live with space, air, light.
00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
The architects and planners point
proudly to the order the space,
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
and light, and air, but critics argue that the empty
space creates a cheerless unfriendly neighborhood.
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
I go a scholarship to study
housing in North America.
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
And everywhere we went was newly
built apartment buildings,
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
public housing fences on the
facility like beehives.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
And I was shocked.
00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
And my idea was to reinvent
the apartment building
00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
so the quality of the house of
(inaudible) garden, street,
00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
and friends is reproduced in
a high density apartment.
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
The ideas were very simple trying to have it
open to as many orientations as possible,
00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
trying to have the house as a
physical entity served by streets
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
and not corridor so they\'re open to the rather
even in Montreal everyone gets a garden
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
and the garden has to be open to the sky.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:28.000
[music]
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
The most exciting part was to see the public coming
in and loving the idea and the people living
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
and wanting to stay in the building, and
loving to the idea of living in the building.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
They say how can you find yourself,
how can you know where you live.
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
At the beginning I got lost many, many times
like where did I come from where do I go from.
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
Imagine having to come to your own apartment
have to show your way in the winter.
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Yesterday a taxi driver were saying is it a hospital. You
leave in that complex like where there is little (inaudible).
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
Some told us you are afraid leaving
there it must be dangerous.
00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
[music]
00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
I used a lot of Lego it was a new toy
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
that came plastic blocks that locked
in and all of Habitat was by Lego.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
The idea was one standardized box
00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
by putting it in different ways
00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
you could get 15 different kinds of apartments. Ideally
you\'d have complete mass production with variety.
00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
[music]
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
First proposal for the World\'s Fair
for Expo was to make the entire
00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
(inaudible) 1,200 apartments
that would be five times
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
what we built and also that was
25 stories high and not 12.
00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
So they were creating under and major
public space there was enough space
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
for some and a school and a little
few offices here and there.
00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
To show that housing should not be isolated
from the other parts of the community.
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
But as we came down to only 12
floors we did not have the scale.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
[sil.]
00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
It became very gentrified because it
became such a desirable address the people
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
who live in habitat they\'re
quite comfortable,
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
I\'d say they\'re upper middle class. But my dream of course
is that the kind of urban housing that Habitat provides
00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
becomes an answer to urban, middle class
living otherwise what\'s the point.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:45.000
[music]
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:05.000
[sil.]
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:28.000
[music]
00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:38.000
[sil.]
00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:25.000
[sil.]
00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
People need different kinds of space.
00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
For example, the habitat for a
single person is one space.
00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
When you are co-habiting the
space is of another kind.
00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:03.000
Technology will enable us to evolve…
00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
…to create mobiles spaces,
to follow the needs of man.
00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
Like clothing - if it gets
too hot, I take it off…etc.
00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
[sil.]
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
Concentrated masses of people
continuous no medicine
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:30.000
show us the possibility of an urban life without the
emergence of three dimensional structures as a basis.
00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
We can imagine a network of energy and information
the makes life possible according to new models.
00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
We can also imagine this grid invisible just
individualized by the equal distant north points.
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
Those points constitute
ideal universal points
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
which satisfy all the primary needs.
00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
A new mankind free from induced needs can
survive with the help of the grid and plugs.
00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
Our elementary requirements can be satisfied by
a highly sophisticated miniaturized technique.
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
There will be no further need for cities or castles,
there\'ll no further need for roads or squares.
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
Every point will be the same as any other.
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
So having chosen a random point
on the map will be able to say
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
my house will be there for three
days or two months or ten years.
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:33.000
[sil.]
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
Pollution was always something we
saw close up or not at all until
00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:50.000
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
gave us a global view from high above.
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:33.000
[music]
00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:55.000
[sil.]
00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
In August it gets a bit like a jungle.
00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
But, using a scythe, it
takes me on hour to mow it-
00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
-and two hours to clear up.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
We have a bit of a problem in
June and July with the frogs.
00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
They create a terrible din-
00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
I have to admit that. It\'s like
a rock concert - very loud.
00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:03.000
[sil.]
00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
It\'s only through disasters and hard-ship
that new solutions can emerge.
00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
The more the disasters-
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
- the greater the chances these
energy-saving eco-houses will have.
00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
Once the land seemed
00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
inexhaustible. The whole sweep
of the American content
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
three million square miles of
the richest land on earth.
00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
Today, the land surrounding our
metropolitan areas is being
00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
swallowed up at the rate of
one million acres a year.
00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:58.000
[sil.]
00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
(inaudible) revolution has been a
fantastic magic kind of process
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
and you\'re still in it,
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
but at the same point we have to wise up
00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
and try to see it between what
feasible and what desirable.
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
(inaudible) because I\'ve
been here for 50 years.
00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
And I think… And I keep saying
reformation in a sufficient
00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
we had to reformulate.
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
Because as we are now set we\'re growing
00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
very speedily against the (inaudible)
00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
and I think that\'s catastrophic.
00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
So since agriculture and shelter
are fundamental, essential,
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
and indispensable there can (inaudible)
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
I don\'t it\'s facing in general.
00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
Where I talk about the reformulation unless
00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
we persuade ourselves to education
we might have to change gear
00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
and change direction we will not succeed
in the matter of a good instrument
00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
or building. I\'m trying to be that
instrument which is almost so small
00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
and so modest, and so build on
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
such limited resources.
00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
We working on the second
containment and they believe
00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
what they call living alternative
propose that we can have
00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
fulfillment with all the needs
of materialistic background.
00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
Now we know surely
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
our immediate future is
going to be cold or hot.
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
In the other this coming
together is the only answer.
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
(inaudible) in an ice age
00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
or you know, tore it kind
of climate yet to do
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
what the animal does and so do I.
00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
Arcosanti is a functioning city built to
embody Paolo Soleri\'s concept of arcology
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
a fusion of architecture with ecology.
The opposite of suburbia
00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
with its resulting urban sprawl
and time consuming distances
00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
Soleri\'s arcologies are hyper dense
cities meant for pedestrians.
00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
The idea is to maximize human interaction
and to minimize travel times and land use.
00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:53.000
[music]
00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
When we find out that when
you have on TV few people,
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
many people when you if you are
in the (inaudible) by a some kind
00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
of a very cool container they seems to be
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
(inaudible) Then there is fact that
00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
(inaudible) controlling the sun
in ways which are positive.
00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
So this would be more of a family apartment
00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
in Arcosanti life. And
it\'s a multiuse building
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
so there is the foundry down
there and residents up here
00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
and these (inaudible) bodies.
00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
The idea of what would be to the (inaudible)
pedestrians city with the beautiful space of your own.
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
Yeah, it\'s very nice to not
have the daily commute
00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
so to live close to where you
work is just an incredible
00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
luxury these days. You do this workshop
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
and after the five weeks you basically
00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
see if the place is what you want. But I think
that part of the principle is to move on
00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
and bring the ideas to other places to
try to create multi-use communities
00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
and try to live frugally.
00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
[sil.]
00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
Since we are not only opportunistic as a
species, but opportunistic as individuals
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
we find difficulties sometimes to
relay and we belong to something
00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
that is real in ourselves. So
the freedom of the individual
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
and the solution of
individual and so on goes to
00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
the point where are we believe and we are so
sufficient organism which is a stupid notion.
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
[music]
00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:59.999
In Florida Jacque Fresco
00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
and Roxanne Meadows work
on the Venus project
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
with the feeling of 1950s optimism,
functionalism, science fiction and ecology
00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
meet in a vision for a new
society redrawn from scratch.
00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
[sil.]
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
Might be a big alligator here.
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
We try to make this place to
show people not what the future
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
will be possible range outside the city.
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
We can achieve a level of production
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
so high that would be (inaudible) to put
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
a price tag on things and that\'s the
beginning of a civilized world.
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
The whole idea of future is to
stop putting up little cities
00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
and buildings but to work on a whole
system transportation, school, shopping.
00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
We only design one eighth of the circle
00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
and then reproduce it.
00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
And when the city had certain size we stop
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
and let everything go back to nature which we
wish in the next city. It\'s the urban sprawl
00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
all over the place.
00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
And they call cities without crime.
00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
So any kid can go and check out anything
00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
(inaudible) and woke up right in your home. if
people have access to the necessities of life
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
they don\'t kill, they don\'t steel
if they are educated properly also.
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
Now for the people that are afraid
that they\'ll be a bunch of scientists
00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
you will work in area D all that\'s bull, all
that\'s what you get from your television shows
00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
there\'s no need to control people none
whatsoever in an abundant society.
00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
[music]
00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
We are one people have houses and then go
00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
on by the furniture, we think that like
your automobile you have to buy seats
00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
it comes with everything so one
wanna mold all that in the house.
00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:28.000
[music]
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
Jacque and Roxanne build models for films they
make to spread the message of the Venus Project.
00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
[music]
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
So people think all my buildings are alike
they are not. If you carefully look at them
00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
there\'s widest range of variables. Some people
say I don\'t know that I want to live in a dome
00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
your brains in a dome, you\'ve been
living in a dome all your life.
00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
This is how we make our
partners we change the dye,
00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
we change the shape, and
then pressure moves
00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
a composite material falling and we cut it
00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and then this machine lifts it.
00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
And this machine inserts
the apartment on to that.
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
Understand? No humans do any
work any kind of work at all.
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
Except what you like to do
art, music, play, write,
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
travel, scuba diving. You
know, it only take 7,000
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
or less people to run everything on earth.
We don\'t need everybody anymore.
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
With the advent of automation and
nanotechnology we will make machines
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
and they will do most of the work.
00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
There\'s no such thing as Utopia it\'s the best you can
design up to now. I don\'t want you to think of my city
00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
as the ideal city it is not it would be
a straight jacket to future generations
00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
they\'re like an old cities. You
understand no final frontier
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
that\'s a message.
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
[sil.]
00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
Oh I got all these ideas
from the human body
00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
when you get an infection you
tell there\'s no committee meeting
00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
that sends a committee to the brain, and the
brains say, \"Oh, I\'m gonna do a two-month study by
00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
that time your infection is up to your knee.\"
The antibody go right away so every organ
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
in the body is taken care of that\'s way to Earth where
(inaudible) nature\'s way not Fresco\'s way, okay?
00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:53.000
[sil.]
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:13.000
[sil.]
Distributor: Icarus Films
Length: 52 minutes
Date: 2007
Genre: Expository
Language: English / English subtitles
Grade: 7-9, 10-12, College, Adult
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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