{"id":7830,"date":"2016-03-13T22:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/a-long-way-down-the-nightmare-of-jg-ballards-towering-vision\/"},"modified":"2016-03-13T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T15:21:10","slug":"a-long-way-down-the-nightmare-of-jg-ballards-towering-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/a-long-way-down-the-nightmare-of-jg-ballards-towering-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"A long way down: the nightmare of JG Ballard's towering vision"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe 1975 novel High-Rise depicted an apocalyptic tower that drove its inhabitants insane. As a new film adaptation hits cinemas, we wonder what the author would have made of today\u2019s rash of skyscrapers for the megarich Dressed from head to toe in white, standing in his private garden on the roof of his latest tower block while his wife rides a white horse around its manicured lawn, Anthony Royal is the perfect symbol of the megalomaniac modernist architect. The villainous protagonist of JG Ballard\u2019s 1975 novel High-Rise presides like a puppet-master over his \u201ccrucible for change\u201d, a brave experiment in vertical living that quickly unravels into a concrete dystopia, driving its residents to madness in the floors beneath his feet. First published when the 40-storey concrete towers of the Barbican Centre were being erected on London\u2019s skyline, High-Rise caught the popular imagination at a time when suspicion of top-down postwar city planning was growing. \u201cA hideous warning,\u201d was the quote taken from the Guardian review emblazoned on the book\u2019s cover, suggesting that Ballard\u2019s intention was a damning critique of the inhumane direction modern architecture had taken. Continue reading…
\n
\nSource : theguardian.com
\nRead more…A long way down: the nightmare of JG Ballard’s towering vision<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 1975 novel High-Rise depicted an apocalyptic tower that drove its inhabitants insane. As a...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-22i","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36778,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/jg-ballards-house-the-perfect-place-to-crash\/","url_meta":{"origin":7830,"position":0},"title":"JG Ballard\u2019s house \u2013 the perfect place to crash","date":"December 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r JG Ballard\u2019s Shepperton home is up for sale or you can rent Ted Hughes\u2019s Bloomsbury love nest. How do the prices compare with other authors\u2019 homes?These are high times for house-hunters of a literary bent. The three-bedroom semi in Shepperton, Surrey, where JG Ballard lived for nearly 50 years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2124,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/myth-of-brutal-blighted-concrete-tower\/","url_meta":{"origin":7830,"position":1},"title":"Myth of brutal, blighted concrete tower","date":"January 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The razing of estates comes from a bias against modernism and public housing, writes John Grindrod\r \r Source : ft.com\r Read more...Myth of brutal, blighted concrete tower","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46055,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/bangkok-ghost-tower-remains-a-chilling-reminder-for-thais\/","url_meta":{"origin":7830,"position":2},"title":"Bangkok 'Ghost Tower' remains a chilling reminder for Thais","date":"March 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The 49-storey Bangkok high-rise was supposed to feature luxury condos for hundreds of newly affluent Thai families, but it was abandoned unfinished when the Asian financial crisis struck in 1997.Now called the \"Ghost Tower,\" it is a monument to mistakes made and an object of curiosity to a steady\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/pTDgRlpYClo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":55117,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/uk-unemployment-at-lowest-level-since-1975-but-prices-rise-faster-than-pay\/","url_meta":{"origin":7830,"position":3},"title":"UK unemployment at lowest level since 1975 – but prices rise faster than pay","date":"May 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r \r Source : telegraph.co.uk\r Read more...UK unemployment at lowest level since 1975 - but prices rise faster than pay","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":126794,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/from-the-shadow-of-grenfell-tower-to-the-chelsea-flower-show-in-just-five-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":7830,"position":4},"title":"From the shadow of Grenfell Tower to the Chelsea flower show … in just five years","date":"May 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Tayshan Hayden-Smith started gardening in a plot under a concrete flyover in west London. Now he\u2019s at the top of his gameThe concrete space underneath the Westway, an elevated dual carriageway that cuts across the Victorian terraces of west London, is not a hospitable place for plants \u2013 nor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":78367,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/new-chicago-skyscraper-planned-behind-redeveloped-tribune-tower-to-rival-trump-high-rise\/","url_meta":{"origin":7830,"position":5},"title":"New Chicago skyscraper planned behind redeveloped Tribune Tower to rival Trump high-rise","date":"January 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A skyscraper that would rival President Donald Trump\u2019s Chicago high-rise as the city\u2019s second-tallest would emerge behind the historic Tribune Tower, while the neo-Gothic office building would be turned into condominiums under still-evolving plans described by an alderman and two sources familiar with the proposal. Envisioned as a hotel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}