The Imagined City of "Silo" (Apple TV, 2023)
Urban design as social conditioning
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62161/sauc.v11.5800Keywords:
Silo, Science fiction, Urban design, Dystopian narrative, Climate urbanism, Anthropocene, Social conditioningAbstract
The television series Silo (Graham Yost, 2023–present), streamed on the Apple TV platform and based on the novels by Hugh Howey, depicts a vertically structured city buried hundreds of levels underground. Set in a dystopian future where climatic conditions have rendered the Earth uninhabitable, this urban design aims not only to preserve the lives of the survivors but also to organise, hierarchise, and subjugate them. This article analyses how, in this work of fiction, the city's spatial configuration functions as a mechanism of social conditioning, promoting stability and the management of vital resources, often at the expense of individual freedoms and personal development.
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