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Utopia or dystopia? I don't know which way we're headed, but as a science fiction and fantasy lover (/small time author) I have my thoughts about it. First of all, one man's utopia might be another's dystopia. Of all the examples I've seen so far it's always a matter of personal taste. Some like high-rise buildings grouped together and don't think of it as dystopia, others feel that a concrete jungle defines it. When building my template for a perfect city in Simcity 4 I wanted to combine both skyscrapers and a lot of green in between them. One thing I didn't add though was farmland. If I had to make it really perfect I'd have to use part of the land occupied by building for farming. Designing cities in (any version of) Simcity was actually a quest in seeking the perfect balance to sustain as much life as possible. Just making a pretty city isn't that hard, sustaining half a million or more Sims is a lot harder. Dystopia, my biggest influences are Bladerunner and Ghost in the shell, the basics are cities packed with skyscrapers and no green areas. Mine would be like my Simcity design, one block contains four rectangled buildings, each containing lower commercial and office space levels and higher residential levels. To pack a lot of people into a city travel between home and work/stores must be kept to a minimum so combining these is best. The four buildings would leave a square space open between them. This square is part of the drainage system. Cities would be too large to handle the rain season very well so a lot of open ground is used to catch and drain the water. Usually the square and the space between buildings have a 10 cm high level of water. Between the blocks runs a raised highway with a waterway underneath for small to medium sized boats which also functions as a drain. The only green areas can be found on the rooftops of the buildings, usually these are public for the inhabitants of the buildings. As this is a dystopia, you'd find trash and ads all over the place. Utopia on the other hand is probably influenced by a lot more various things like the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe cd/lp cover, the nature in Far cry 2, and excellent anime like Beyond the clouds. High-rise buildings are no longer clumped together and urban areas no longer exist, there are no more villages, towns or cities. When expansion is needed a high-rise building or skyscraper is erected with commercial, office and residential space and enough farmland and wild nature to comfortably sustain the population inside the building. Industry, whether heavy or high-tech, is located in their own areas with enough nature to offset any negatives. Apart from the roads connecting the buildings there are canals and railways for transportation. Single houses do exist, but as they're more expensive to live at and the apartments thmselves are large and luxurious enough they're mostly used by farmers who support the building population. And to alleviate enery usage, the rooftops are covered with solar panels and wind turbines. Now, neither of these views are a perfect utopia or dystopia as things can get much more extreme, but I think these would strike the best balance in a future environment. I wouldn't like to see the world end up like Spaceball.
	The reason why is just as important as the answer to the question	mail? nystrom.nl, marcel