Freaky Architectural Stuff for Ruin

[trinite]

So instead of putting this into the General Chaos HAY GUYS thread, I figured I'd start a new one here, since it directly pertains to Ross's upcoming game. I figure it'll be more convenient to collect any weird architectural horror-type things we find in one spot.

Things like The Imaginary Prisons of Giovanni Piranesi: http://www.futilitycloset.com/2014/10/11/the-imaginary-prisons/





The full gallery can be found here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Le_Carceri_d%27Invenzione

[CADmonkey]

Since I’ve heard Ross mention J.G. Ballard in relation to his Ruin project, I’d like to mention this:



If you haven’t read this yet, it is a must-read for anyone interested in Ballard.  This book has some great interviews and essays, and I think of particular interest for Ruin is David Pringle’s The Fourfold Symbolism of Ballard, which examines the symbolism of the landscapes in Ballard’s stories.

Though it looks like this book is currently sold out on the publisher’s webstore, it is still available on amazon.

[CADmonkey]

Cold War Architecture!

A recent posts on The Atomic Age blog jogged my memory about this:

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE

America's Abandoned $6 Billion Dollar Missile Pyramid



That is the first and last "Safeguard Complex", built to intercept incoming Soviet ICBMs.  It was built between 1970-75 and shut down after one day.  The Library of Congress has a great set of photos and drawings available online.


Then there's Abo Elementary School, profiled in the 99% Invisible podcast: Cold War Kids.  Abo was a school built underground to be used as a fallout shelter in case of nuclear war, which is a slightly disturbing idea.

And for further reading, the 99% Invisible podcast mentioned One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture.  And when I shared that podcast on G+, the author of The Atomic Age blog pointed me to Survival City: Adventures Among the Ruins of Atomic America.

[clockworkjoe]

I own and have read survival city - I even ran a game themed around it http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2010/07/genre/horror/fear-itself-survival-city/ and reviewed in an episode of RPPR http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2009/08/podcast-episode/rppr-episode-35-gencon-2009-preview/

I am aware of one nation underground but I haven't read it yet. This book is next in my cold war architecture reading list: Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War (Architecture, Landscape and Amer Culture) http://www.amazon.com/Fallout-Shelter-Designing-Architecture-Landscape/dp/0816669767

You should also check out Wool, which is a neat sci-fi novel that explores some relevant concepts here.

[CADmonkey]

I own and have read survival city - I even ran a game themed around it http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2010/07/genre/horror/fear-itself-survival-city/ and reviewed in an episode of RPPR http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2009/08/podcast-episode/rppr-episode-35-gencon-2009-preview/

Cool, I hadn't heard those podcasts, they're from before I started listening to rppr.

[clockworkjoe]

i need floor plans of hotels, especially the kind you see near highways.

[Kamen]

I'm actually traveling a lot more for my job now, so I'm staying in a bunch of extended stay hotels. If I can grab floorplans and/or interior photos I'll link them here. Hopefully it'll be helpful.

[trinite]

Google "hotel fire escape plan" and "hotel evacuation plan" and look at images.
These could actually be used as handouts, since they're usually posted on the hallway walls. Some samples:

[Ezechiel357]

For inspiration:

Since I am Swiss, I will do some self-promotion: we might not have SEALS and other famous units, but a serious can opener will be needed for any baddies with hostile intention (those defense are probably no more adequate for the modern warfare, but who cares  ).

Bunker for all Swiss and the largest bomb shelter in the world.

More details on said Sonnenberg Tunnel/Shelter.

And since I am currenlty running a game set in modern Russia, I can only suggest you to google soviet abandoned monument.

[trinite]

I could see a Sonnenberg Tunnel scenario in which a carload of Swiss PCs are caught between two overlapping alternate realities: the one they come from, in which the tunnel is functioning as a normal roadway -- with dangerous speeding vehicles everywhere -- and one in which it's sealed as a fallout shelter during a nuclear attack. The PCs have to figure out why the realities are bleeding over into one another, while trying to escape the fallout quarantine. If they mess it up, they do escape the structure - but only into the nuclear apocalypse, not into their normal Swiss road trip.

[clockworkjoe]

http://reason.com/archives/2014/11/16/stillborn-utopia

http://retrieverman.net/2010/10/27/the-wolves-of-paris/

A group of the boldest Parisians got together and went on an urban wolf drive.

They pushed the wolves into the Île de la Cité.

And then  drove them into the front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

In front of the citizenry, the wolves were speared and stoned to death.

And the wolves’ bloody reign of terror ended.

[CADmonkey]

So in the latest Game Designer Workshop podcast, Ross was talking about the phenomenon of the built environment changing people, and it reminded me of this documentary on urban planning:

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

Have you seen it?  Perhaps it's a little broader in scope than what you're thinking of for Ruin, but I suspect it has at least some relevance to it.

[CADmonkey]

Oh, and speaking of "Freaky Architectural Stuff":

Photographer Victor Enrich Reshapes an Existing Hotel, 88 Times

https://vimeo.com/81182837

[clockworkjoe]

So in the latest Game Designer Workshop podcast, Ross was talking about the phenomenon of the built environment changing people, and it reminded me of this documentary on urban planning:

<a href="" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win"></a>

Have you seen it?  Perhaps it's a little broader in scope than what you're thinking of for Ruin, but I suspect it has at least some relevance to it.

Good find! I eventually plan to feature entire cities in Ruin and similar principles apply to architecture and urban planning. I'm always interested in the conflict between the ideology of designers/builders/architects vs the people who wind up using their products. The docu looks good, I'll have to watch it.

[Twisting H]

Not crazy architecturally, but interesting.

Heard of Murphy's Ranch in the California LA area?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Ranch

The Murphy Ranch is a ranch built in Rustic Canyon, Los Angeles in the 1930s by Winona and Norman Stephens,[1][2] who were sympathizers of the Silver Legion of America.[3] The owner of record in 1933 was Jessie M. Murphy.[2] Designed as a base for Nazi activities in the U.S.,[4] it was intended to be capable of being self-sustaining for long periods. The compound had a water storage tank, a fuel tank, a bomb shelter, and various outbuildings and bunkers. The estate's main gate was designed by Paul Williams, a well-known African-American architect in the Southern California area.

On Monday, December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, local police occupied the compound and detained members of the 50-strong caretaker force.[5]

Wisely indeed did Lovecraft write "A dispatch from California describes a theosophist colony as donning white robes en masse for some "glorious fulfiment" which never arrives, whilst items from India speak guardedly of serious native unrest toward the end of March 22-23."

Here is urbex of the interior: http://californiathroughmylens.com/murphys-ranch-abandoned-nazi-camp-in-santa-monica/