Still, Walmart, its gargantuan sins notwithstanding, has accomplished remarkable things from a command and control POV. Much of this logistical technology can be liberated from the corporate entity and applied - with perhaps good effects - elsewhere.
Some claim that human survival is dependent upon de-centralization and 'localization'.
Too late for that I say.
>From "We Make Money, Not Art" (which is, alas, that
most regrettable of Internet creatures - at least, for
some tired souls - a blog):
Waltropolis: City In A Box
theboxtank URL - <http://www.theboxtank.com/> (Emily Andersen, Geoff DeOld and Corey Hoelker), a collaborative blog about big-box urbanism and retail, have devised a city in a box with discount living for 100,000 inhabitants. They call it Waltropolis
URL - <http://www.theboxtank.com/walmartbox/2006/03/waltropolis_cit.html>
Wal-Mart's Supercenters offer the one-stop shopping experience. In addition to providing discount merchandise, these big-boxes include nail and hair salons, pharmacies, banks, travel agencies, gas stations, police sub-stations and a range of fast-food restaurants. One-stop shopping becomes one-stop urbanism as services found "downtown" fold into the Supercenter. Urban events of downtown have followed. Recreation vehicle Parking, weddings, armed forces recruiting, voter registration, high school marching bands, public assembly, crime converge on the Supercenter. It is privatised public space; discount style, a victory of American pragmatism.
theboxtank considers the latent possibilities of the big-box as a megastructure. In Waltropolis, the city and everything contained within it are organized in an infrastructure based on Wal-Mart’s distribution machine.
Waltropolis optimizes the distribution of goods to its population of 100,000 people. 11 km (7 miles) by 1.6 km (1 mile) and 90 m (300 feet) high, the 10 levels of Waltropolis locates the retail, civic, educational, and cultural program within the efficiency of a box. Residential tract housing is located on the roof deck, the 7 sq. miles optimized to provide the suburban-style living Americans have come to expect.
Waltropolis provides its private fleet of trucks dedicated lanes which ramp up to loading docks. Containers are unloaded directly on to conveyer belts that transfer goods to the appropriate Waltropolis level and product department.
[...]
full
<http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/008171.php>
.d.
--------- das blog ist flüchtig, nur Wissenschaft aushält