Monday, Jul. 13, 1925
Air Cities
Crawling around on the surface of the earth, burrowing underground, seem absurd occupations for creatures that have learned to fly. Soon men will move their houses and traffic into the upper air entirely. So predicted one Frederick Kiesler, young Viennese architect exhibiting at the Decorative Arts Exposition in Paris, last week. Kiesler had invented nothing, discovered nothing; but his artist-dream seemed hardly less logical and likely than did the skyscraper, the ocean-crossing dirigible, the hovering helicopter, 25 years ago. In the Kiesler dream, enormous steel towers arise, honeycombed with elevators. Hundreds of feet in the air vast platforms, with towns upon them, airdromes, sunshine and the fresh winds of heaven. The platforms are erected over forests, rivers, lakes, like the stilted cities of Borneo and Siam, or the fabulous hanging gardens of Babylon. With transport facilities developing as they are, said Kiesler, "distance no longer exists. . . . We can live where we like."