9/6/2005: Low-income housing in Ixtapaluca, Mexico
 

http://cellar.org/2005/CasitasGeo.jpg

Thanks to Marcel, who maybe doesn't have a Cellar username?

When I first clicked on the gent's submission, I thought, no. It can't possibly be. This is a fake. These are rendered. They're just too uniform to be real. Didn't I build neighborhoods like this in SimCity? Isn't this a SimCity screenshot?

No, it ISN'T. So the photographer claims!

http://cellar.org/2005/MontondeCasitas.jpg

These are shots from a helicopter pilot on Mexico City. He points out that, in these shots, you are seeing only about 300 houses in a complex of 10,000 of them.

You know, I can't think about this for too long. It's practically unimaginable. But however this came to be, it IS a far better outcome than some of the other shots in the guy's gallery...

You know, I don't think it's that bad. I mean the uniformity is certainly weird, but look at how nicely kept they are. I would definitely rather stay in one of those than a larger house that was falling to peices.
Weird, but better than the alternative.

http://cellar.org/2005/ixtapaluca.jpg

Searching on Ixtapaluca, Mexico in Google Earth confirms large areas of dense planned neighborhoods like this, with similar rows of tiny housing, but none in the bright colors. Could be these homes are new and not yet in the Google Earth imagery.

Might have just a little trouble locating your place of residence after a few beers....

No wonder they're coming north. :mg:

Sorta Brave, New World-ish. Sorta creepy. Makes me want to run out and consume mass quantities. It also gives me an eyeache.

they could use a few of those in N.O.

Even with the color changes it must be very difficult to find your house ... particularly if you live in the pink with dark rose section which is near pink with medium rose ... or is that just the lighting?

ummm... bienvenidos a Palucaville

Man, that is verging on being disorienting.

Talk about a Pleasant Valley Sunday...

They are all so ugly, but I suppose people have to live somewhere.

Lego!

There's a plus and a minus to this...
 

Plus is that this could promote the idea that you have exactly what your neighbor has so there is no real point in competing with him (the 'do better than your personal best' idea to work/play/life)

Minus is that this could very easily turn into an Orson Wells reality show ('1984')

I think you meant "Orwellian", as in George Orwell

"....yep then make a left at the orange house..."

you'd get all defensive about what colour you lived in
"i hate blue people, they think they are so much better than us pink people. the grey people dont like them either"

This is no different from a large apartment block here in the States. Actually, these houses look fairly nice.

Did you notice that in the first pic, a couple of streets appear to be cordoned off from the rest of the neighborhood by a high wall and barbed wire. They also have more cars in the driveways in that section. Elitism en el barrio?

I suspect that what you actually think as different colors is just a color of the fancy protrusion wall on top of these houses. All the roofs are brounish, and that's exatly what you see on gmap shots.

Yea, and here's the car park for this neighborhood! :mg:

once the hippies start moving in, though, it'll be just like everyplace else.

The 2nd shot looks real - the first is a rendering (or a retouch job)- look at the cars and the shadows - particularly the second white house from the left on the foreground street - what is causing the shadows on the wall?

that's not shadows, that's filth

OK - then look at the shadows of the roofs - the top most projection is curved, the shadow is square

IMHO - the 1st is retouched, 2nd is real

The open "room" or projection on top of each roof has a front wall that is curved on top, and a rear wall that is flat on top. The curved front wall creates a shadow which falls onto the rear wall of that "room." Inside the room. The flat rear wall casts its shadow onto the house behind it. That's why the shadows are flat.

The first picture is real.

I thought about that - but then the angle of the sun would have to be high enough for that to happen , and the shadows on the buildings on the rear would be lower

I still think the 1st is phony

Where the hell are all the chicken coops and vans?
I'm still trying to figure out what the building on top of the building is. Maybe that's where they keep the chickens.............

The shadows on the buildings in the rear come from the house that seems to be next door to the house in front. It's just the perspective. That's why they look higher than they should.

Look at the angles of the shadows in the attached image. The angles are the same.

I admit the image looks unreal, but upon closer inspection, I think it's legit.

you can see the shadow of the curved part on the other part of the roof.
first one is real

HVAC.....that's the boiler room. :)

Holy shit...there's propane tanks on those roofs.

I'll bet Cinco de Mayo is *real* interesting around there...

Hank Hill: I bet the propane man hates this part of his route.. Seems like a bad planning decision to me. IF it's a real picture.

I'm not convinced either. Look at the first row or two of grey houses in the second image. They have pink tops and front fences... Also, in the top left corner of the second image, what is going on with the oragnge tops? Maybe its just the resolution of the picture but it doesn't quite look right.

Oh, wait. I see, the "grey houses" are still being built. They just haven't finished painting them. Nevermind me.

With a remote fill it's just as easy to fill a propane tank on the roof as a fuel oil tank in a basement and a lot more sensible. After all a leak would just disperse harmlessly rather than filling your basement with toxic waste.

Looking at his website all his pictures have that flat colour crisp look to them. I wonder if it's a comination of a cheap digital sensor or film stock and some heavy handed photoshopping.