Coruscant: Vertical Urban Sprawl
General Preface
When George Lucas created Star Wars, he wanted his universe to feel "lived in" – opposing the futuristic “clean slate” aesthetic of other sci-fi locales. Through Lucas’ attempt at realism, we are gifted a smattering of community-based case studies strewn across the Star Wars galaxy - a handful of which we will explore using the book Star Wars: Complete Locations.
Today we gander at the planetwide city of Coruscant and its thousand-fold level of development...
Vertical Sprawl
While the cityscape of Coruscant sprawls across the entire planet, it's hard to label it as pure urban sprawl (which by Earthen definition is a horizontal branching of development). In fact, the new "surface level" of Coruscant is 5,127 stories high where buildings - miles high in elevation - have encapsulated and obscured any geographic features underneath. In this case, the vertical sprawl may be more cataclysmic than the horizontal variety - the aforementioned geographic features now unbeknownst to planetary citizens of the urban jungle (a more philosophical concern) and the uncleanly, unbreathable air at Coruscant's lowest levels causing more tangible distress. A lack of light and high crime also plagues the planetary basement. In contrast, citizens of class or political merit find themselves in the upper levels where air is clean, where light is bright, and where crime is...well...a jedi matter.
The People
In the first edition of Star Wars: Complete Locations, there were a reported 12 billion inhabitants across the planetary city, but this figure has since been adjusted to "more than 1 trillion individuals" - these individuals being of no specific species.
As foretold above, the type of people one finds on Coruscant depends on how far one travels into its depths. In caste-like fashion, jedi, politicians, and high-class citizens live at the highest levels with their own first-world set of concerns while a third-world of crime and make-do lies further below. Further below still is a dark, primitive world where mutant species scavenge the lowest, abandoned levels. It's this vertical regionality of Coruscant which is better comparable to the horizonal regionality of our own planet. Where one finds a culture on level 4,673 may also find a similar culture on level 4,132 (even if these two peoples are horizontally separated by thousands of miles), but a culture on level 5,043 would be vastly different from a culture on level 106 directly below it. Person A could live in the same X and Y coordinates as Person B miles below, and yet, the difference in Z-value might as well make Person A a penthouse New Yorker and Person B an impoverished inhabitant of the Kowloon Walled City.
Architectural Quirks
Aside from the obvious quirks of density and height, there are other architectural elements to note. At the highest levels (where the majority of the Star Wars plot takes place), most buildings are silvery-gray in color with high-rise apartments glistening in the sunlight (perhaps a show of class). There is a sense of uniformity to the color palette as if municipal code has dictated it in some way. Prominent buildings like the galactic senate and jedi temple form the new "mountains" in a world now devoid of landform. At night, lights set the city ablaze - the resulting light pollution almost certainly obscuring any stars shining above.
Vehicular Circulation and City Layout
Speeders and other small aerial craft fly in organized flight paths across the city. What delineates and enforces these flight paths is unapparent, but it would seem that vehicles follow some set of rules (either written or unwritten). Much travel occurs in the avenues carved between buildings, but occasionally, tunnels and renegade thoroughfare prevail. As for parking, landing pads hover over the city in lieu of incoming starships while smaller, more peninsular landing pads jut horizontally to accommodate speeders and the like. It is also not uncommon for one to park their speeder next to their apartment steps where it will hover over the Coruscant abyss until called upon.
At a regional scale, there is a marked network of radial hubs (akin in shape to crop circles) with crisp linear axes protruding from each. Each hub is well lit, possibly indicating a higher density development and transit in those areas - much like the higher development seen along American interstates and the major cities in which they service. Orange light also emanates from the deeper levels along these axes.
What We Can Learn
As we continue to discourage horizontal sprawl and push urban density on Earth, it's important to acknowledge vertical regionality and the changing of culture at different altitudes - especially, as it relates to quality of life and susceptibility to caste-based verticality. Also, while urban density will help preserve natural landforms on the urban periphery, in the urban core, landforms can be recreated symbolically via building heights, forms, and placements. As for the vehicular network, even "flying cars" will need to abide by a set of rules as to avoid in-air collisions.
In a final comment, Coruscant - with its landscape of bright lights and multi-mile buildings - has eschewed its geographic underbelly and severed its cosmic connection. Without further insight, the "above" and the "below" are completely unbeknownst to its citizens. While carried out to the extreme, this is likely an embodiment of many large Earth cities and their residents who know not of the lands below them nor of the skies above them. Citizens know only of their city, its shine, and its shadows.
References:
Film: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)
Film: Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002)
Film: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Star Wars: Complete Locations (illustrated by Jenssen & Chasemore). Lucas Books. DK. (2005)
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