Industry in Desert

Global scenario

The solution from science fiction disaster movies
In early 21st century, science fiction disaster movies were very popular. Various catastrophes had been simulated in these movies, as well as the possible response strategies. Some of them particularly suggested the feasible architectural forms and urban morphologies in different disasters, for instance, the villages on cliffside from The Time Machine, the underground town from City of Ember, the machine city from The Matrix, and the abandoned earth from Wall.E etc. . Ironically, when the global disaster caused by global warming actually came, the dramatic science fiction plot, which were the most forward researches in managing global catastrophic situations, became real. The implement of these utopian conceptions brings beauty and romance into the dystopian world. These new cities and architectures are artificial wonders in the recession of human civilization.

Global land use system
In the old world, land value was normally judged by criteria in various aspects, so the process of evaluation was relatively complex. However, the evaluation system has been largely changed. During global warming, most resources of cultivated land and fresh water in the world be consumed, so the need for food cultivation become the unbeatable factor. But other evaluation standards, such as the commercial value and the location dominance, are not crucial at all. In the new judgement system, the potential capability in cultivation becomes the most decisive factor in evaluating the value of a land. Hence, the remaining lands are categorized into three classes: the arable land, the social land and the industrial land.

The arable land
The first class land includes remaining farmland, arable land, high precipitation area and the lands with surface fresh waters or groundwater. They are reserved and protected as the last cultivation resources for the food consumption of the entire human race.

The industry land
The third class land is all kinds of desert areas, where the temperature is too high, lack of fresh water and food supply for human living. These areas are used as industrial production lands. Manufactories were planned and constructed in new way. Component-based and unitized design becomes the common practice in the extreme environment. Based on this principle, as the material input ports and manufacture units, a series of factory rings with similar structure were located near every mining deposit. At the same time, as the transportation component and output port, a conveyer belt was designed to connect all the factory rings together. From mining to product packing, artificial intelligent supervisor, remote-controllable machines and automatic production line were introduced and integrated into the system, to create an unmanned system. In this process, only few human members are settled on the conveyer belt within an artificial indoor environment, playing roles of higher supervisor and maintainer.

Completed in Apr. 2010, Using Photoshop
The closest Factory Ring is quoted from a drawing The Hub by Ian Grainger, the distant ones is quoted from a drawing Helios by Rudolf Herczog