What If? Metropolis: Critical Presentation

Crit Presentation by Terry Brunt on Scribd

What If? Metropolis: Travelogue V2

Travelogue: City of Sake Amfani

Location: North-west Nigeria, in the desert not far from Niger.

Population: 8 million (Approx.)

You stare down the long, empty road. The sun, scorching; you feel dehydrated. In the distance, you can see structures, you are unsure of what they are. You look behind you, the recycling plant, the building you just left. You had just been in there to ask for directions, they pointed you in the direction of the distant structures. You asked what was there, they replied: “A city where nothing is wasted.” Looking back at the plant, you see many recycling trucks dump all their contents and drive off again, but suddenly a new vehicle appears, this doesn’t seem to be carrying rubbish and it seems to be heading towards to city.

You stop the driver and ask if he can give you a lift. He seems to be in a good mood, he offers to take you to the city. He asks if you’ve ever been this way before, you haven’t. He chuckles, asks if you even know where you are, you don’t. “The city ahead of us is Sake Amfani, the city of reuse.” He explains. “Most of the other major cities here in Nigeria waste a lot of materials, one day the founder became annoyed with such waste and decided to build homes with it. The site of the city was once considered to be landfill, but now it shines like an oasis!”

As you approach the city, the structures are still difficult to make out, but they are very clearly buildings. You ask what this lorry is. “Material transport. Many of the materials used in the city are made from recyclables. We make them at the plant and then we bring them up to the city for construction. Behind us is about a ton of plastic; ready to be used in the construction of a new home.” Houses made of recycled plastic? That sounds like an optimist’s fantasy, but as you get closer to the city, you notice to road change from the desert path, to something that looks almost like tarmac. “Even the roads here are made of recycled material. Treated of course. Normal plastic wouldn’t be able to handle the heat.”

You’re almost at the city. The driver pulls up next to a construction site. “I’ve got to stop here and unload the material. Just continue into the city, if you need a place to stay for the night, go to the centre, there they can give you a key to a room in either the wall or the tower.” You both step out of the vehicle. You thank the driver for helping and you part ways.

Before entering you look into the city. You see huts of mud brick, wells of cobblestone, houses of plastic, buildings of metal, numerous structures made from stacked shipping containers and lamp post using bleach in bottles as a light source. This city seems oddly surreal and entirely possible at the same time. You venture inwards.

The outer-city acts almost like a small village. People talk like they all know each other and the houses look rather packed up closely. You take your time walking through, watching a farmer feed his cattle, watching children run around in a small park, witnessing a woman paint the outside of her plastic home a pale red. There is a strange sense of home here. You would stay here a get to know the neighbourhood, but you feel like you’re melting and your throat is absolutely parched. You go inwards, hoping to find something to drink.

A little further in and you find what appears to be the market. Clothes, spices, fresh meat, vegetables, jewellery, random little trinkets. Almost anything you could think of is probably being sold here. Reason would also dictate that the items for sale would probably made from recycled material too. At the end of the market is a well. Oh, thank goodness, you think to yourself. You march over to the well in hopes of scoring a drink. You walk past all the market stalls. Oh? It turns out you was right, everything made at this clothes stall is made from recycled cloth. At least that’s what it says on the banner. You made it to the well. An old man sitting by it, looks up at you and immediately offers a cup of water. You gladly accept the water and then ask what is he doing? “I’m in charge of the well here. This is well 3. There are 18 wells across the city, making sure that everyone has enough water. Today is a hot day, so I pre-emptively collect some for whenever people need it”. He smiles. You smile back and say thank you. Continuing forward, you find it odd how nice people are here, but you figure that there’s no need to worry about it.

You arrive at the city wall. A large wall made up of numerous building blocks. This wall extends around the entirety of the inner-city. It’s not much of a defensive wall, however; the entrances are far too big and frequent to keep anyone out. Walking through the wall and into the inner-city, the sheer number of people about has increased dramatically. This is more like a city.

Busy streets. Hundreds of pedestrians. It would be easy to lose track of where you are, if it weren’t for the giant tower at the centre of the city. That’s where the driver said you should go, right? You head there. It doesn’t take too long; crossing some roads, trying not to bump into people, basic city survival. The tower looks incredibly daunting. A skyscraper, hundreds of feet into the air. You wonder when this was built. You don’t think about that for long though, the sun is infuriatingly hot and you just want to lay down. You walk into the building. It looks similar to a fancy hotel. You walk over to the welcome desk. You ask if there is anywhere you could stay. The receptionist says there are some rooms free in the wall. She hands you the key and tells you where to go. Back to the wall.

After a quick walk over and a climb up a flight of stairs, you arrive at your room. A pale orange block made of sandstone. You open the door. Wow. Much like the rest of the city, the room is remarkably clean, it is actually quite cool in here and the window gives a fantastic view over the outer-city. You collapse onto the bed, it’s soft and comfortable. You think you might stay here for a bit. Continuing the trek can come later, but for now you just want to revel in the beauty.

What If? Metropolis: OGR 1

What If Metropolis: Online Greenlight Review 1 by Terry Brunt on Scribd

What If? Metropolis: Travelogue V1

Walking down a dusty, desert road, bizarre shapes appear in the distance. You walk towards these distant objects as you look around your current location; you notice other roads, all heading to the unidentified shapes. Continuing down the road, you hear the sound of a large vehicle zooming down one of the roads. You look to the vehicle, it’s a rubbish truck. It continues down towards the distant location as you hear another truck go by, and then you see another, and other, and other. You wonder that maybe the location ahead is just a landfill.

As you approach the location, you begin to notice more distinct shapes. Cubes and prisms of various shapes and sizes, they almost look like buildings? Of course not, buildings aren’t made of rubbish. Moving forward you notice the stench of old metal and rotting wood, certainly smells like a dump. Against your better judgement, you move on.

Getting closer and you can see the buildings slightly more clearly. The buildings look like they’re made out of discarded materials. However, you notice something new, there seems to be a gap between the ground where you are and the ground the city is on.

You continue onwards. The gap gets wider and wider. You notice that the road you’re walking on ends at the gap, and at that point there seems to be some kind of walkway. The buildings look even more distinct, even from here. They’re houses? They must be, you can hear the sound of families coming from them, and you can see lights emanating from the make shift windows. You’ve heard of shanty towns or slums, but this is something entirely different. It must be at least double the size of any shanty town, this must be some kind of shanty city!

Some of the rubbish trucks have reached the end of their roads and have started dumping all their contents into the gap, which at this point is very wide. You can also see the contents of this large gap, it’s all rubbish. It actually is a landfill. Why? You understand that unwanted material must go somewhere, but why is there a city in the centre of it? Will you find the answers in the city?

Heading to the giant river of garbage, you finally see that the walkway at the end of the road, is a slightly rotten wooden bridge, connecting the main land to the island the city rests on. The smell is horrific and the sight is just awful, you wonder why anyone would want to live here? But maybe they don’t have a choice. It could be possible that the people simply cannot afford to live somewhere better. You think its best that you stop jumping to conclusions, it may be a better idea to head into the city and find out how these people live for yourself.

Upon landing on the island, you’re unsure if this even is a natural island. Is the ground made of garbage with a layer of mud on top or is it real turf? The local people don’t seem to mind. You look up to the closest building, it’s made of rusted iron and plastic wrap, very unsanitary. You peer through a bit of plastic that is in place of a window, you see an entire family in there. There looks like there’s barely enough room for 2 people, let alone 7! And yet, they don’t look miserable. They’re sitting around talking, eating dinner, laughing. Even the coldness of the metal the building is made of cannot detract from the warmth of this home.

Are all the houses like this? How many people live here? The buildings stack and the paths are narrow, this city is like a labyrinth. Before journeying into the maze, you take one final look of this section of the outer city. You notice some children running around playing games, you see some people climbing into the pit and clambering back out with more garbage to add to their patchwork houses. You see a sign, “Welcome to Junkyard City”, how did you miss that? At least the name is pretty self-explanatory.

You begin you adventure into the city. The walls are tight and there are people everywhere, it somewhat reminds you of the slums in India, except this is Nigeria. Even though this is a clearly poor area, built from the left overs of others, the people here still seem to have a sense of culture. You see a few vivid paintings on some of the walls and you occasionally see small statues resembling people in the middle of the city streets.

You think you’re still heading in the right direction, that layout of this city is all over the place. You find a well, there is a group of people surrounding it. You wait to see what is going on, and moments later a bucket emerges from the well. The people celebrate as if it were New Year’s Day, what did they find? Water. Really? These people must be in a really bad state if they celebrate after finding water. You continue to watch as people pass the first bucket around and as a second bucket goes into the well. Water is such a basic necessity, you wonder if the people here even have food. It seems odd to you that the people here also seem to be so happy and contented, it almost seems as if they’re in their own little world.

You finally ask a local, ‘What actually is this place?’

“To you, a mess; to the government, a blemish; to society, a disgrace; to me, home. Things are thrown away every day, never to be used again, just like the founders here. They were used and then thrown out by their society. They decided to embrace everything that is discarded. They began building this place, at first out of spite, but then they noticed that people without homes would come in seek of shelter. The founders then continued to build for the people and the things that society casts out. You wonder why the people here are happy. It’s because we have each other. Many of us have very little material wealth and to the greater government, we are worthless. But here we are all equal. We care for each other here, just outside a society that cares for no one. We use unwanted materials because it reflects how we were unwanted, but it also shows how we can be brought back to accomplish different things. We are not part of the society, but we are a community.”

You think you know understand what this place is to some extent. You wonder if there’s even more to this great city. However, understanding the city still doesn’t stop the smell.