‘Dark Tourism’ & The slums of the future

Article at the Guardian on ‘dark tourism’ – pilgrimages to sites of tragedy where we experience ‘a mix of reverence, voyeurism and maybe even the thrill of coming into close proximity with death’. Author John Lennon (?!), who presumably is tired of the Beatles ghouls lingering around his old apartment block where Mark Chapman emerged from the shadows and called his name, suggests we should use such sites to educate, not entertain.

Not sure the Disaster Tourism project represents the kind of education he has in mind. More on dark tourism here. I’ve yet to plow through it, but looks interesting.

Now! The urban landscape of the future. Two neat little articles at the always dark, whimsical and utterly fascinating BLDGBLOG. The first is about the reclamation by wild flora and fauna of foreclosed American homes – an interesting consequence of the collapse of the derivatives market/sub-prime lending. Then there’s this about future slums – a subject always of interest to the committed ARKist. Apparently lack of minimum-size building regulations for British homes has resulted in a proliferation of almost unliveably-tiny apartments in city centres, suitable only for single men or women. Possible future scenario: built at a time when property is hugely overpriced here, a general collapse in the housing market causes them to become new slums…….. interesting to speculate how zoning laws (or other regulations) in this socio-economic paradigm have knock-on effects for the next, but people already pay a lot to live in city centres, and as the oil price goes up, living in walking distance of (relatively) plentiful potential food and work is going to command a premium. Opens up the debate about future urban landscape from the Kunstler-esque mantra that the suburbs will DIE all DEAD and be DEAD and ALL OVER, though.

The most interesting thing would be… ARK starts operating disaster tourism holidays in foreclosed mansions, apartment blocks, gated communities… Or hires out a whole floor of undersized British city-centre condo… learn to live now like you’ll have to.