Rise Of The Megacities

These megacities are "part science fiction and part theme park."

1 minute read

April 16, 2004, 8:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"The megacities of Southeast Asia are a dream and a nightmare cohabiting. Emperors could only dream of capitals that so prodigally display might and money; urban planners must wake screaming from visions of massed poverty in the same places. Authors of fairy tales might have dreamed up the architecture...Claustrophobes are condemned to the nightmare of midget apartments...drivers fret the hours away in pinched streets shrouded in gasoline fumes.

The United Nations says that by 2010, some 18 of the world's 30 largest cities will be in Asia (compared to only three from Europe and North America). In the region's new megacities, height is might, speed is wealth, density is power, and the skyscraper -- that American symbol of modernity -- grows on steroids and is colonizing the sky."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: The Emerald Megacities of Southeast Asia

Sunday, April 11, 2004 in The New York Times

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