Questions tagged [city]
For questions involving the nature, development, impact, or design of cities. This tag may be used for a city of any size including (but not limited to) hamlets, villiages, towns, metropolises, and megacities.
63
questions
72
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24answers
17k views
What is the utilitarian purpose of artificial waterfalls?
In sci-fi and fantasy artwork, I often see a city built on top of or incorporating waterfalls:
James Gurney's Dinotopia (above) is an egregious example with "waterfall towers". When the city is ...
43
votes
18answers
11k views
City made of glass in a desert?
My world has a city of glass found along the outskirts of a desert. I decided on this because sand can become glass and so it was a huge resource that could be used for building. However, the concern ...
42
votes
6answers
9k views
How big can a town get before everyone stops knowing everyone else?
In small towns, people often say that everyone knows everyone. While probably not literally true (for all but the smallest towns), the rate of interaction between members of the town is still high ...
31
votes
17answers
6k views
What food production methods would allow a metropolis like New York to become self sufficient
In my overcrowded future setting the Hegemony (government of the Earth) wants to make the metropolises of the world self sufficient when it comes to food production. What farming/food production ...
asked May 9 '19 at 15:21
Celestial Dragon Emperor
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24
votes
15answers
6k views
How long would it take to dismantle a city by hand?
The end has come and gone, and the survivors of humanity have adopted a new religion - dismantling the sins of the past. Dismantling the cities, roads, towns and relics of the past by hand. The ...
19
votes
8answers
2k views
When starting a new village, what are the sequence of buildings built?
Obviously I know that everyone who is living there is going to want a house but what comes after? Do they build a butcher’s building next or maybe a blacksmith’s building? And what comes after that? ...
18
votes
12answers
5k views
How quickly could a country build a tall concrete wall around a city?
I'm currently in the world-building phase of my book (hence why I'm here).
To add some perspective before I ask my question. The story is based in Britain, during the year 2032.
In my story, there ...
17
votes
3answers
321 views
How to make a self-sustaining necropolis?
My living friends. I'm a Lich, a wizard that became a undead and obtained immortality, I am looking to build a necropolis for me to be its king, I chose a distant city to turn it's inabitants into ...
16
votes
6answers
2k views
Iron deposits mined from under the city
I would like to have a city sitting on top of a large iron deposit that will be mined by the inhabitants of the city. Is that feasible for them? Won't the city collapse under the mines? Are there some ...
14
votes
8answers
2k views
What is a better design for a floating ocean city - monolithic or a fleet of interconnected modules?
Assume that the city is about 1-3 kilometers in diameter, built with relatively futuristic technology, and there are no plans to expand it further (If the need arises, they'll just build a second one)....
12
votes
18answers
7k views
Is it realistic for a town to completely disappear overnight without a major crisis and massive cultural/historical impacts?
I was inspired by this question which talks about feuding clans of immortals in an urban fantasy setting trying to wipe out each other's cities while under a masquerade. There's a lot of this kind of ...
12
votes
4answers
2k views
Calculating City Size based on Population
Question: I'm trying to determine how large (geographically) my city will have to be to accommodate for 1 million people.
I have a city that was basically formed by the gods to be fertile land with a ...
12
votes
9answers
695 views
Standardized building materials across a Roman style empire
I am working on an empire that exists in my world. I want to know if it makes sense for said empire to standardize the materials they use for construction across the empire.
In the heart of the ...
12
votes
3answers
426 views
Shatoum: The Granite Citadel
I have a location in my story, the design of which needs a reality check.
City Description:
As my ship cut across the waves a blurred grey smudge appeared in the distance, as the hours passed it ...
9
votes
15answers
7k views
How can a barren island state comprised of morons maintain positive GDP for decades?
Moronland, an island as big as New York, population at least 2 million had little natural resources no fresh water and no oil.
The locals worship Koalemos and they have a very strict law which states ...
9
votes
3answers
585 views
Underwater city sanitation
In a vaguely Medieval setting with some limited magic, how would an underwater city handle sewage?
Sanitation was one of the biggest limiting factors in the growth of human cities, and being under ...
9
votes
3answers
1k views
I need a systematic way to consider all crucial factors when building different kinds of near-future cities
I'm crafting the worlds and cultures of my own Alien societies and a near-future human world (near-future Earth), it's the first time I've attempted this in detail. Everything I've found so far about ...
8
votes
3answers
209 views
Size of a flying city based on dirigibles
In my world I need to create a city that permanently floats in the air. My idea was to create a sort of trading center where the dirigible-like airships in my world can dock and trade. Over the course ...
7
votes
5answers
781 views
What would be the best city in the U.S./Canada to live in for a supernatural being trying to exist undetected from humanity?
I am wondering if there are any specific cities on the North American continent (not considering Mexico for the moment being, for reasons detailed below) that supernatural beings trying to live hidden ...
7
votes
3answers
268 views
Plausible futuristic infrastructure for an underwater micronation built 300-500 feet below the surface
My story takes place hundreds of years in the future after global warming has made life at the surface uninhabitable for most life forms. What’s left of mankind survived because it became popular to ...
7
votes
1answer
204 views
What would be the an avarage and/or realistic population density be for an medieval based city?
I'm currently building a world for a medieval based D&D campaign (i know super original) and I'm trying to make my cities as realistic as i can. Right now I'm planning on making a city in the ...
7
votes
2answers
122 views
How do I strike a balance between real-world inspiration and purely fictional design, especially for alternate cities? [closed]
My primary question comes from a fledgling animator's perspective. I'd like to capture the general look and feel of a lot of South Florida's cities, while also combining it with my urban-fantasy/...
6
votes
4answers
790 views
City defenses against kaiju attacks?
In this series I'm mulling, kaiju have been around since prehistory, turning up off and on right up until modern times. In the near-future of this alt-history, say in the next twenty years (2040ish), ...
6
votes
4answers
391 views
How long would it take to build up a town after it has been reduced to rubble?
I am creating a world with roughly medieval levels of technology (It is actually in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign) and the world has just been almost destroyed.
A city has been flattened to the ...
6
votes
4answers
203 views
How would you design Turn-Signals on a Flying Car?
When designing a flying car intended for congested city routes with slow traffic, should turn signals indicate all possible directions. In most sci-fi, I've seen designs that have no turn-signals or ...
5
votes
4answers
469 views
What is the best way to cause swarm intelligence to be destroyed?
In my story, there is a large group of humanoid clones that help the city function, doing mundane tasks such as cleaning and maintaining the city. Doing all of the minimum wage jobs and 95% of the ...
5
votes
3answers
563 views
How to hide a city?
There are about 1000 people, with medieval technologies, that want to build a hidden city (so other people can't find it, or with minimal chance). They must:
have access water
have access to food
...
5
votes
5answers
475 views
What would the climate of a planetwide city be like?
Assume the entirety of Earth (all the land) is covered in a city. What would the climate be like in different parts of it? I.e., what would it be like on the coast, or inland?
I imagine it would be ...
5
votes
4answers
333 views
Urban design that counters shapeshifters?
Set in the present day Shanghai, China.
Humans co-exist with another intelligent species with the ability to shapeshift at will, the shapeshifters like to morph into various objects (both animate and ...
5
votes
1answer
189 views
Would it be worthwhile to locate capital in high mountains on an exoplanet with higher atmospheric pressure?
Tech level: modern - like
Atmospheric pressure at local sea level:
Oxygen ~30 kPa
Nitrogen ~180 kPa
(So roughly counting 1.5 times more oxygen, 2.25 times more nitrogen)
Technically speaking such ...
5
votes
2answers
148 views
How would a company take over a secret/private city realistically?
I've been trying to rewrite a novel I wrote in high school, but this time actually have it make (some) sense.
Basically there's a decently sized company in the novel that takes over a private/secret ...
5
votes
1answer
227 views
How long would it take for nuclear energy to become adopted in a world on the brink of collapse?
For reference, I'm going with the accepted answer given here: How would technology adoption of Lithium Air battery work?. In my world, it makes sense that governments would be very interested in ...
5
votes
2answers
100 views
Fantasy Zootopia: Ooze People
My world: Rail Transportation with Races Described Below - Specifically, Seating
Most of the races have been accommodated now. Anything the Taurs need (Adjustable seats, wider sidewalks) accommodate ...
5
votes
1answer
221 views
Plausible design/size of flying cities?
Setting
The setting was a tropical, Mars-sized, ocean-covered world that has completely frozen over. Over the span of several years, the mean global temperature had dropped to below 200 Kelvin. Ice ...
4
votes
6answers
254 views
City-Closing Event
What single event would cause a large city to be closed down completely? I am developing a game and need a way to shut down an entire city with the citizens locked in with zero escape routes. ...
4
votes
2answers
98 views
Dusty city living
I am writing about a magical-realistic city in Latin America that is very dusty, See: A brief introduction for visitors
How do modern humans adapt their lives to urban environments with frequent dust ...
4
votes
2answers
341 views
What are the architectural considerations when an underwater species builds a city?
I've got a species that lives in the Southern Ocean along the Antarctic coast, and they are basically a sentient crossbreed of Orca whales and elephant seals. They are omnivores, have opposeable ...
4
votes
1answer
148 views
Class system economy
I want a class system in an enclosed citadel with Roman times technology.
It is based around the idea that the farmer class work the land to bring food to the entire country.
All farm lands are ...
4
votes
1answer
103 views
Plausible age for the ruins of a modern city skyline
The setting is some indeterminate amount of time in the future. Humanity has had a rough recent history being rocked by wars, disease, and natural disasters and the current iteration of civilization ...
4
votes
3answers
221 views
How could an underground city hide its existence for potentially thousands of years?
After the fall of the lizard empire, most of the lizard people fled to Node to avoid genocide (This is in the Lovecraft universe, racism is mandatory). In short order, this former bomb shelter became ...
3
votes
2answers
336 views
What's the largest space ship that couldn't support its own weight?
In my story I have a space ship, constructed in orbit around earth by an advanced artificial intelligence, large enough to be a generation ship. This ship was never designed to land on a planet. The ...
3
votes
2answers
210 views
How do I create a realistic world and country?
I know this is a very broad question, so I'll try to narrow this down.
I'm writing a novel about faeries who live in another realm, and the faeries live on an island. The capital city is there too, ...
3
votes
2answers
443 views
How large should my fortified medieval village be?
Backstory
My poor medieval people are taken from our medieval Europe (Germany to be more specific) with an entire settlement to another world (think: cut a few square kilometeres of land and paste it ...
3
votes
2answers
208 views
Is it a good idea to build floating city on water?
Let's say in a post-apocalyptic flooded Earth, the land is becoming more crowded and more scarce as the sea levels rise.
So a countries government decides to build a floating city that expands ...
3
votes
3answers
228 views
Ideal Place For Kenya Spaceport?
Its 20 seconds in the future. The space age is truly dawning this time. And I the CEO of a wealthy aerospace company, am looking for the perfect place to set up shop with my new spaceport. I've ...
3
votes
1answer
111 views
How would a large solitary nectivorous species develop a society?
I'm having some trouble with my species, specifically whether or not if or how they can form a society among themselves. I question if they could have developed permanent settlements where their ...
3
votes
1answer
164 views
Floor is lava, need answer
Imagine a tsunami of lava has flash-flooded cities. Oddly enough there weren't eruptions or earthquakes, just a sea of molten rock covering every inch of road, street pavement, what have you. ...
3
votes
1answer
100 views
Fantasy Zootopia: Taur Races
Okay, for my D&D game, I'm creating a 19th Century world. I have some stuff here:
Rail Transportation with Races Described Below - Specifically, Seating (For Trains; Read Accepted Answer)
19th ...
3
votes
2answers
93 views
Expanding a free floating underwater city
Okay, I have a planet with a global ocean of liquid water, and there are these cities in the ocean, floating a few hundred to a few thousand meters beneath the waves. They have spaceports that allow ...
2
votes
11answers
1k views
How can one plan structures and fortifications in advance to help regaining control over their city walls?
In my fantasy world, I have a really, really big city where trade and people flows are done through magic gateways. Partly as to not let whole districts suffocate in poverty (among other bad things), ...
