URBAN
Ever since Zhongzhi, before the founding of the confederacy, progressive Asian minds have sought the opportunity to rebuild the interstellar empire from the ground up architecturally to improve the lives of the general citizenry. The nukes, they saw, were a once in a millenium chance to make real, systematic change in the way people lived. They sought solarpunk utopia. As the civil wars died down, lasting parliaments founded, activists pushed for drastic changes in city planning, zoning laws, and the very financial bedrock of local economies. The effects of these efforts varied wildly across the new confederate interstellar empire.
Solarpunk
The ideal scenario, solarpunk cities largely did away with corporate influence, integrating self-sufficient agriculture with sensible architecture and functional transportation, encouraging the formation of tight knit communities. The base societal unit of these solarpunk cities is the "village", made up of roughly a hundred families spanning three or four generations, with local convenience stores, medical facilities, and a community workshop and urban farms, to foster self-sufficiency and community bonds. AI-assisted teachers are present locally to accelerate students through basic knowledge, before spurring them towards high level thinking. Pedestrian walkways and biking routes dominate these villages, bus and trainlines leading them elsewhere. Everyone in the village is give a basic income in the form of guaranteed housing, free medical care, network access, and an allotment of food stamps, water, and electricity. Despite criticism as "leeches" on rural areas and other cities, these solarpunk urban cores have produced an unproportionally high amount of educated talent, serving as the backbone of local research and skilled human resources.
The two most prominent solarpunk cities in the HFR are Yunwang of Li Ming and Rili of Shen Zhou, both capitals of their respective systems and had unproportionally high concentrations of visionaries that allowed radical, progressive policies to push through. However, the architecture could not be more different. While Yunwang features many domed, organically shaped housing units, mish mashed and seemingly randomly placed, inspired by local Aos Si construction; Rili is far more brutalist and mathematical, consisting of square rings of blocks reverberating from the core of the city like walls of a great fortress. Still, similarities exist, namely the minimal amount of wide roads and the vast prominence of local vegetation.
Green-washed
Green-washed cities were an attempt towards true, systematic change, but ultimately hampered by foreign influence, ineffective politics, and plain human fallacy. On the surface, these cities look bright, shiny, and futuristic, with great, exotic architecture and vegetation dotted throughout the city. In reality, the precious usable space is used ineffectively, much of it relegated to show rather than practical use. Inequality is noticeable in these cities, with a small proportion of the civilian population enjoying spacious apartments and easy access to amenities, while most of the population squeezed where they can, often lacking easy access to medical care and schools. At worst, civilians are pushed into neighboring cyberpunk districts. Still, community can be found here, and education levels remain high in spite of the inefficiencies. Over half of the HFR urban population lives in these green-washed cities. Reforms to dismantle inefficient builds and repurpose the land for more sustainable architecture is slow and steady.
The two most prominent green-washed cities in the HFR is the new half of the Beijing megalopolis and Taipei. The architecture was heavily influenced by foreign, western visionaries, granted direction over the layout, in exchange for vast financial support in reconstruction. In both cities, the tallest skyscrapers and nigh-impossible architecture can be found, with vast parks and city squares, symbols of 23rd and 24th human architectural mastery.
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk cities are the result of complete, local corporate domination and negligence of the political leadership of the highest degree, representing death spirals and the failure of the new democratic institutions to improve the quality of life of the citizenry. These cities are best characterized by their old skyscrapers and crowded roads, failing infrastructure, and grey visages shrouded in literal shadow; Kowloon cities, remnants of the PRC, spared by the nukes, but lacking the political and foreign attention for resources to rebuild and reform. Inequality is at its maximum in these cities, with the most wealthy living in the suburban exteriors as the rest of the citizenry languished inside. These cities are barely economically positive, and educational levels are noticeably below the supernational average. Still, folk in these cities create found families and form communities, if for no other purpose than to rebel against the oppressive leadership.
These cyberpunk cities can be found across the HFR, but concentrated mostly in mainland China, namely the Shenzhen and Shanghai megalopolises. They are dying cities, with high emigration rates, depleting the local, educated and capable population, further degrading the citizenry's ability to make meaningful change.
Post-Apocalypse
Post-apocalyptic cities are more rural than urban, with very low population densities due to the lack of systematic maintenance and lingering radiation. Broken skyscrapers overgrown with vegetation dominate the skylines, the infrastructure below difficult to navigate. Yet, life lives on, even thrives, among the ruins, unbothered by heavy human presence. Populations of wildlife, unseen elsewhere, can be found here. Adventurers, anarchists, and isolationists are attracted to these ruins as well, seeking refuge from the rest of interstellar society, forming ad hoc, self-sustaining and scavenging communities. They completely disappear from government records.
Post apocalyptic cities feature prominently on mainland China, namely in the form of old Beijing and Wuhan, but also as towns near military installations on Zhuque and Wu Zetian.
Ever since Zhongzhi, before the founding of the confederacy, progressive Asian minds have sought the opportunity to rebuild the interstellar empire from the ground up architecturally to improve the lives of the general citizenry. The nukes, they saw, were a once in a millenium chance to make real, systematic change in the way people lived. They sought solarpunk utopia. As the civil wars died down, lasting parliaments founded, activists pushed for drastic changes in city planning, zoning laws, and the very financial bedrock of local economies. The effects of these efforts varied wildly across the new confederate interstellar empire.
Solarpunk
The ideal scenario, solarpunk cities largely did away with corporate influence, integrating self-sufficient agriculture with sensible architecture and functional transportation, encouraging the formation of tight knit communities. The base societal unit of these solarpunk cities is the "village", made up of roughly a hundred families spanning three or four generations, with local convenience stores, medical facilities, and a community workshop and urban farms, to foster self-sufficiency and community bonds. AI-assisted teachers are present locally to accelerate students through basic knowledge, before spurring them towards high level thinking. Pedestrian walkways and biking routes dominate these villages, bus and trainlines leading them elsewhere. Everyone in the village is give a basic income in the form of guaranteed housing, free medical care, network access, and an allotment of food stamps, water, and electricity. Despite criticism as "leeches" on rural areas and other cities, these solarpunk urban cores have produced an unproportionally high amount of educated talent, serving as the backbone of local research and skilled human resources.
The two most prominent solarpunk cities in the HFR are Yunwang of Li Ming and Rili of Shen Zhou, both capitals of their respective systems and had unproportionally high concentrations of visionaries that allowed radical, progressive policies to push through. However, the architecture could not be more different. While Yunwang features many domed, organically shaped housing units, mish mashed and seemingly randomly placed, inspired by local Aos Si construction; Rili is far more brutalist and mathematical, consisting of square rings of blocks reverberating from the core of the city like walls of a great fortress. Still, similarities exist, namely the minimal amount of wide roads and the vast prominence of local vegetation.
Green-washed
Green-washed cities were an attempt towards true, systematic change, but ultimately hampered by foreign influence, ineffective politics, and plain human fallacy. On the surface, these cities look bright, shiny, and futuristic, with great, exotic architecture and vegetation dotted throughout the city. In reality, the precious usable space is used ineffectively, much of it relegated to show rather than practical use. Inequality is noticeable in these cities, with a small proportion of the civilian population enjoying spacious apartments and easy access to amenities, while most of the population squeezed where they can, often lacking easy access to medical care and schools. At worst, civilians are pushed into neighboring cyberpunk districts. Still, community can be found here, and education levels remain high in spite of the inefficiencies. Over half of the HFR urban population lives in these green-washed cities. Reforms to dismantle inefficient builds and repurpose the land for more sustainable architecture is slow and steady.
The two most prominent green-washed cities in the HFR is the new half of the Beijing megalopolis and Taipei. The architecture was heavily influenced by foreign, western visionaries, granted direction over the layout, in exchange for vast financial support in reconstruction. In both cities, the tallest skyscrapers and nigh-impossible architecture can be found, with vast parks and city squares, symbols of 23rd and 24th human architectural mastery.
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk cities are the result of complete, local corporate domination and negligence of the political leadership of the highest degree, representing death spirals and the failure of the new democratic institutions to improve the quality of life of the citizenry. These cities are best characterized by their old skyscrapers and crowded roads, failing infrastructure, and grey visages shrouded in literal shadow; Kowloon cities, remnants of the PRC, spared by the nukes, but lacking the political and foreign attention for resources to rebuild and reform. Inequality is at its maximum in these cities, with the most wealthy living in the suburban exteriors as the rest of the citizenry languished inside. These cities are barely economically positive, and educational levels are noticeably below the supernational average. Still, folk in these cities create found families and form communities, if for no other purpose than to rebel against the oppressive leadership.
These cyberpunk cities can be found across the HFR, but concentrated mostly in mainland China, namely the Shenzhen and Shanghai megalopolises. They are dying cities, with high emigration rates, depleting the local, educated and capable population, further degrading the citizenry's ability to make meaningful change.
Post-Apocalypse
Post-apocalyptic cities are more rural than urban, with very low population densities due to the lack of systematic maintenance and lingering radiation. Broken skyscrapers overgrown with vegetation dominate the skylines, the infrastructure below difficult to navigate. Yet, life lives on, even thrives, among the ruins, unbothered by heavy human presence. Populations of wildlife, unseen elsewhere, can be found here. Adventurers, anarchists, and isolationists are attracted to these ruins as well, seeking refuge from the rest of interstellar society, forming ad hoc, self-sustaining and scavenging communities. They completely disappear from government records.
Post apocalyptic cities feature prominently on mainland China, namely in the form of old Beijing and Wuhan, but also as towns near military installations on Zhuque and Wu Zetian.