Questions on the Philosophy of creating an intentional “Steampunk” community

[Roderick Hellyer]

Good day Ladies & Gentleman ,

For many years, I have been fascinated by intentional communities.  I define an intentional community as a group of people who choose to live together or in the same geographical location  following a similar code or culture, and working towards a common aim.  There have been many successful intentional communities, from monasteries to eco villages.

Now I find myself wondering, could those devotees of the Steampunk lifestyle crate such an intentional community? Would we want to? And if the answer is yes, would this be a viable project?

I like to hear the comments and thoughts form this wonderful community,

Respectfully


R. Hellyer

[Bertram Granger]

Mr Hellyer.

It's a wonderful thought, and I reckon possible. It wouldn't be too different from what you say sir; Eco-villages and the like, or from another view, perhaps long-term Re-enactor camps? I myself am probably not steampunk enough to participate in such a wonderful project, despite this I'd very much like to see it . On the point of possibility, if people were willing and prepared to live in such a community I reckon the will would provide the way.

Bertram Granger.

[Atterton]

There´s been some things on this in the thread about Victoriana called Help Find A Place For Colonisation or such. The main problem however is people´s different perception of steampunk. Some see it as a genre, some as a lifestyle and others as a political movement.

[Shinyhead]

Also location would be a trifle hard.  One persons paradise is another persons nightmare.

[akumabito]

There are several issues that would need to be resolved, actually. People having different notions of what steampunk is or ought to be perhaps first and foremost, as Mr. Atterton said. It can be quite challenging to keep everyone on the same page for such a grand project, while still maintaining a sense of individuality as well as a team spirit.

But besides such philosophical problem, there are also some great practical problems. How far can/will you take the Victoriana experience? Is it possible to construct a small town in Victorian  or steampunk style while still keeping matters more or less affordable, comfortable for longer stays and -perhaps most important- in check with local building codes?

What can be done to integrate external activities into the community? A lot of people will have normal jobs.. you'll have commuters... cars... not very steampunk. Will you force people to park half a mile away?

Etc., etc., etc..

[Roderick Hellyer]

Excellent posts one and all!

I dare say the quickness of replies in this forum always delight and amazes me.  First I cannot stress how important it is for the foibles and "cracks in the plan" of any endeavor to be  raised in intelligent discourse.  It is only though this discourse that solutions can be found or plans modified or awareness to the possibility of an idea be made.

Allow me to talk to a few of the points raised by various posters ...

I have read Mr. Atterton, the posts on the thread you mentioned.  I found it to be a highly interesting if some what speculative set of posts .  Your correct that the overall term "Steampunk" means many things to different people and I dare say many things to a single individual depending on the context of the conversation.  Let me state I do not wish to define the term narrowly or to use it to enforce one view or another.  What makes a community work is having a freedom and a tolerance for others points of view.  If one had the resources and set to build a town based on narrowly defined principles then one either creates a cult of personality or a homage to an ideal that has no flexibility for growth and adaption. Both are bad planing models, the cult of personality no matter how enlightened the individual usually lasts only as long as that person is involved with the endeavor. As for a homage to a narrow point of view, again the inherent flexibility needed for growth would not be present.  Look at the problems Celebration (the Disney planned community)  has had since it opened itself up for business.  I believe that if you keep the idea of said Steampunk community confined to a blending of the design  coupled with the  the eco-village idea of sustainability and alternate power generation and not trying to enforce  or dictate the way people think in any aspect would meet with more success in the long run.

Mr. Shinyhead posts that location can be a problem as one mans paradise is another mans hell.  To that I say, yes thats true... but you have to start somewhere and no matter where you start you cannot please everyone .  As a matter of fact if you tried to please everyone then you are doomed to failure.  Wherever a community springs up...some people will be attracted by the location and others will not.  The world is a big enough place to have multiple communities developing as they will in different locations.

Mr. akumabito raises many practical concerns from project management and leadership to building codes.  I think a steampuk community to be successful would not be an attempt to make a perfectly historically accurate reproduction because then your becoming more a theme park then a community like Dickens World in the UK (http://www.dickensworld.co.uk/). I believe said community needs to be part of the larger world then cloistered away from it so yes you have to plan with that in mind.  I feel the practical concerns you raise in some ways are the easier ones to deal with.

As for actually design I would gather lessons from the different new urbanism projects that can be found world wide (city of tomorrow http://www.scandinaviandesign.com/newsstand/bo01/index.htm).  While cars or such modes of transportation  will always be with us, proper planing can make a town square more bike friendly, pedestrian friendly and incorporate perhaps more future forms of transport like monorails, or electric trolleys etc.  I think by blending the attitude and style of steampunk with the sustainability of future design can produce a viable steampunk community well into the future.

I fear i have rambled a bit here so Ill go back to reading the posts and endeavor to be more succinct in my future posts.

Thank you all for your thoughts,

R. Hellyer

[Vincent Théière]

I have one of those, the place is my house, the community is me.  And yet, there is still infighting, sigh.... will we humans never learn?

[akumabito]

Please do continue your ramblings, as I thoroughly enjoy topics such as this one.

Another thought that could be interesting for further development is the idea of economic sustainability. Perhaps the community could have its own economic activities more in line with the overall goals of the project. That way, the steampunk experience would not get interrupted for the inhabitants by spending so much time in a radically different environment (in this case, work 'back in the real world'). Naturally, it will be quite challenging to find activities that will provide external income for the community. For example, I am pretty sure many fine craftspeople will be interested. But the market for steampunk art and items is quite limited. The market for general retrofuturism might be slightly bigger, yet it will not be sufficient to keep all the artisans working full time all the time.

In that light, it could be worth looking at other great examples such as the eco-communities you mentioned earlier, and other self-sufficient communities. Try to incorporate as many of their ideas as possible within the general steampunk atmosphere. Economic sustainability can be largely increased by minimizing the dependence on the 'outside world'. After all, everything that can be produced locally needs not be bought, saving a lot of money, though at the expense of the necessary man-hours of work.

[Atterton]

The most realistic goal might be to create a victorian village, and have it open to tourists. A Living History thing. It would give an income, give the craftsmen something to do and a reason to run around in costumes. There is a small danish town like that, made to resemble Denmark about a hundred years ago. You can have a look at this website. It´s in danish but it has pretty pictures which might give you an idea of it.

http://www.dengamleby.dk/

[akumabito]

Hmm... just thinking... building codes can be a PITA if you want to get properly creative, and construction costs quickly rise to astronomical heights unless you can do all the major work yourself. Both those issues could be avoided altogether however; just make sure all the buildings are 'non permanent'.. removable structures of any kind do not fall under the building codes, and need not be overly expensive either. As an added benefit (possibly), the whole community could be moved to a different location if the need arises, if you are forced to resettle, or you could make it part of the routine to become semi-nomadic.

My personal favorite, the tipi! I just can't help but think it could be awesomely steampunked. Scrap the wooden poles in favor of copper pipes! The fabric Canvas of course! Firepit? No way! Make that a cast-iron stove! Good stuff for sure... (Link: extensive information on the construction and setting up of a tipi)

Alternatively, vardo's or yurts can also be steampunked quite easily. A DIY project need not cost an arm and a leg and they too are relatively easy to transport.

[elvendredi]

I think that on a smaller scale, say an apartment building in a city, it could work well. I grew up in a married student housing building where the tenants were all more or less in the same situation (one or both partners in graduate school, small children, no money), and as well as providing a place for them to live, the building provided a community with shared laundries, a "give and take table" arrangement for sharing clothing and household goods (easily applied to artistic trades, as well as basic items), a garden that tenants could use if they wanted to grow vegetables, impromptu rosters for making meals when someone had a baby, plenty of support if people needed help with studying or childcare or companionship.

Apply steampunk ideas to the decor of the place and the shared DIY culture, and it could work.

[Atterton]

Sounds too hippie for me. 

[elShoggotho]

Something like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[akumabito]

Something like this?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Aye, though I still prefer a tipi myself..

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Rosel]

I always stare wistfully at the abandoned/semi abandoned red brick warehouses on the outskirts of old industrial towns and want to set up a sort of steampunk commune there.

[the Hat]

I personally love this idea. Not as an actual community, but maybe as a kind of resort; I believe the idea has merit. To further fuel your imaginations, I have a website for you. The aesthetic is not quite, but almost Steampunk and can definitely be build upon!

www.earthship.net

[Von Gast]

If this thread had taken place fifteen-twenty years ago I could have suggested a perfect location (maybe a little more dieselpunk than steam but still). Before the developers got their hands on it there was an enormous warehouse complex/rail depot in the centre of Bristol called Canons Marsh. The connection to the main line was lost in the '60s but it still had plenty of track that would have been a hoot for anyone with an interest in building speeder-type contraptions.

[akumabito]

Good idea...

*slams head against wall for not thinking of that myself*

The UK and continental Europe are littered with abandoned industrial complexes dating back to the late 1800s / early 1900s.. Can't get much more steamy then that!

[Von Gast]

Good idea...

*slams head against wall for not thinking of that myself*

The UK and continental Europe are littered with abandoned industrial complexes dating back to the late 1800s / early 1900s.. Can't get much more steamy then that!

Can we find a rail-served one? Only I have a weakness for scenes like this...

http://www.bristol-rail.co.uk/images/bristoldocks1.jpg

This was how Canons Marsh looked while active. The site is now occupied by "@Bristol" and a load of rather ghastly flats:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/irtmainpage/tmpsteam/canon.jpg

[Rosel]

oh I've been to @Bristol, it was better when it was the Exploratory.

[Von Gast]

oh I've been to @Bristol, it was better when it was the Exploratory.

Ahh, is that what happened to the Exploratory? I remember it in the original Brunel-designed station next to Temple Meads but had no idea where it went after that.

[Vienna Fahrmann]

     If a steampunk community ever happened, the architecture seems guaranteed to be interesting.

     Vienna

[Wrath the Mad]

Indeed... Glass, brass, wood & black iron. A rail service with steam and style; a tavern with taste and WITHOUT a tv; an electric service system to make a mad scientist giggle! Streetlamps with jacobs ladders atop their peaks light streets and parks, open-frame clocktowers indistinguishable from surrounding gear-functioned buildings. Pipes count as architecture, as the work shows the pride taken in it's construction and shape.

*dons his green-lensed goggs and sighs contentedly*

"And I say to myself, 'what a wonderful world'!"

[elShoggotho]

Crystal palaces dotted all over the place showing off the work of the great gadgeteers...

Read the bit about the Gernsback Continuum in the Book of Worlds (Mage: The Ascension) and go back for about fifty years...

[Pheobsky]

What about acquiring an old hull (one of the fishing fleet from grimsby?), do it up & sail around the world, meeting steampunks all around the coast, & changing crew every few ports!