solarpunk Hazelfield (tour)
@Michi, @Spaceblaze, @Dead_End, @JulioC, @Dgmc2013, @mattb325, @mitsos, @MissVanleider, @tomz16, @Chappington, @Kloudkicker and @TogaMasterJohn, thank you very much for your likes, your follows and your comments. I hope I didn't miss anybody. That has been a heck of the time, being busy with so many stuff in my real life and meanwhile putting my mayor skills to the ultimate test and challenge myself to build the best and most detailed city I could have ever build, but I think I made it and I think I deserve to feel a little proud for my work 
So after so many months on hiatus, it's finally time to explore Hazelfield. 80 pictures come ahead!
Named after my favorite nuts, the design and building selection of Hazelfield are based on two actually proposed urban plans. My first inspiration was the Circular Cities of the Venus Project, designed by the American scientist Jacque Fresco. The circular scheme offers maximum efficiency, bringing each radial sector closer to the center of Hazelfield. Also, citizens traveling within the town could easily return to the same place from where they started, without having to take the same route back like in most linear cities and waste time.
My second inspiration was an old Japanese urban design known as M.O.T.H.E.R. project. Designed by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction in 1991, a 1.321 meters tall tower with 220 floors would house all the necessary services, such as offices, civil services, communication centers, hotels, and even an observatory. All the mentioned facilities would be accessible to the one million citizens that would surround the tower, all living in neat houses with plenty of green spaces. The citizens of this city would be connected with the Mother Tower by computers and communication systems, and could even work from the safety of their houses. Teleworking before it becomes cool 
. Because its conception predates the modern Internet, you can't find a lot of information about this project. I learned about this by an old book. Never underestimate the power of the books.
So, we have two concepts, a circular design and a big central tower. Mix them together and you'll get Hazelfield
OK, it's not exactly circular. It's octagon. And yes, I know that I could do better with the NAM FAR roads, but let's make some baby steps for now.
The city is divided by the regional magnetic railroad into two main sectors. The west sector is mostly residential, while the east sector has a larger variety of building types, such as shops and most of the city's industries.
You can also see that in the city corners there are the most important utility services that provides power, water and food, and take care of the trash.
Before we explore the town, let's have a quick look at these utility facilities. We have already solar and wind energy, so this time let's go geothermal. Readily available in various geographical regions throughout the world (like Iceland and Greece), both on land and under the sea, geothermal energy uses the hidden warm of our planet to produce energy, and this power source alone could provide enough clean energy for the next thousand years. Fairview has a small pocket of geothermal energy source, making it the perfect opportunity to build our very first geothermal plant.
This small pond has gathered some raining water, making it a hot spot for ducks, swans, deer, flamingos and other wild animals. The water tower next to it pumps water from both underground sources and the small pond, purify it, and then send it to the city's thirsty citizens.
Citizens needs food too, and those hydroponic and aeroponic vertical farms are used to grow a wide variety of organic plants, without the use of pesticides and too much land.
And here is where the trash ends up, in a state-of-the-art recycling center and a very clean waste-to-energy incinerator. This incinerator is so clean that it doesn't bother the citizens living close of it. Believe it or not, an incinerator can actually be that clean, and there is already one in Denmark. Amager Bakke is billed as one of the cleanest waste-to-energy plants in the world, thanks to technologies that filters its emissions. This facility burns trash to boil water and produce steam, to produce electricity and provide heating to 72.000 houses. It uses a series of advanced filters to keep it clean, and it even has its own ski slope. Hazelfield's incinerator doesn't have a ski slop, but its even more advanced filters and incinerating methods make it even more clean than Amager Bakke. But is clean incineration an actual clean solution? Many environmentalists say no, claiming that it's better to reuse and recycle than to burn stuff that you could use them for something else. It's still better than dumping trash in landfills, but better and cleaner solutions are always under research and always welcomed. Just because solution A is better than solution B, doesn't mean that solution A is the best ever and we must stick to it forever.
And now, after so many months, it's finally time to explore Hazelfield. This is the central sector of the city, and you can't get more central than a central tower and a central plaza with a central transportation hub. Oh, did I say "central"? I don't remember. Central, central, central... 
Every city in Fairview has its own identity, its own personality, something that makes it unique. And what makes Hazelfield unique is being the first city with a central hub that has everything you need. Instead of having police stations, fire stations, schools and hospitals in individual buildings scattered across the city, the central tower houses the healthcare, educational and public rescue facilities, all under the same roof, easily accessible for everybody. The central tower also houses the computerized communications, the networking systems, and even the central AI of the city. That's right, instead of mayor and advisors, Hazelfield in under the supervision... of an Artificial Intelligence! Don't worry, though. This AI is not going to control your life and tell you what to do. Unlike SHODAN from System Shock, Skynet from Terminator, and Grigor II from Empire Earth, an AI doesn't have to kill you or conquer you.
The central AI of Hazelfield monitors everything in the city, from the power plant and the vertical farms to the trains and the educational computers, and when the AI finds a problem it will immediately try to solve it. Why an AI supervisor instead of a human one? Because even if you put in the office unquestionably kind and reasonable mayors and advisors, it's only a matter of time before something bad happens. The biological human brain is the most complex object we know, capable of creativity, imagination and other incredible things, but it still has some serious limitations. It's not perfect and it's just can't do everything. On the other hand, an electronic brain, a computer, can deal with even the most complex systems much easier, faster and more reliable than a group of human brains. But since the central AI has to deal with humans and not with machines, every one of its decisions goes under the knowledge of the citizens and a group of carefully selected scientists from differed fields. So while the "mayor" here is the AI, the "advisors" are the citizens themselves and the civic scientists. An alliance of humans and computers. In other words, there is no central authority here. Nobody controls the city, and at the same time everybody controls it. Kind of like mixing direct democracy with technocracy and anarchism.
And this is the central plaza with the central transportation hub. From here you can take the bus, a bicycle, the subway pods, or the regional magnetic train.
Green cities and central AIs. Welcome to the future! Flying cars and nuclear fusion are coming soon
The west sector of Hazelfield is the mostly-residential district of the town. This area is full of houses, trees, parks, recreation spots, and paths to encourage walking. It even has some of the very first high-rise residential buildings in Fairview, which they look a bit like chocolate bars. Mmm, I love chocolate. With hazelnuts
Another pond
Lots of parks and quiet corners to spend your time.
And look, lots of trail paths for walking or cycling. And yes, some in-game Sims actually use them.
I always plant redwoods and other natural skyscrapers. The "problem" is that I've had spend so much time in this city that they grown up to their final height. Now they might look a little silly, but the view from the top of those trees will be fantastic
And as you have noticed in some of the pictures above, not all houses have to be directly connected to the roads. Some of them are along the trail paths or inside of plazas and parks, forming mini neighborhoods and communities.
Let's go now to the east sector. Here we'll find shops, offices, factories, the central tower, and some extra homes and small apartment buildings. And of course lots of parks and gardens.
This is the Hazelfield's spiritual temple, which functions as a spiritual sanctuary and a dialogue forum. Citizens doesn't have only physical needs to cover, you know. They also need some form of socialization and communication with each other, always in a polite and civil tone of course.
A neat example of how factories can coexist with parks and trees.
Is this a flying truck parked in that factory's launch pad? Yes, it is! I told you that we'll get flying cars very soon
Even a futuristic solarpunk society can welcome something rustic and old school, something that adds a nice touch of history. Like this bus stop, designed by the architectural AI R7.
Both east and west sectors are divided by the regional magnetic railroad, under of which there is the main bike road.
Not all parks and recreation spots have to be inside the city. Some of them are outside of it, in the borderline between nature and civilization. So go ahead, sit on those benches, eat something tasty on those tables. Feel free to use the observation towers to watch the deer and the birds, or use the cabins for whatever you want. Be closer to the nature. Feed the animals if you want, even though it's not recommended. Animals must be free and independent, being able to take care of themselves. Feeding them once in a while it's not that bad an idea. You may even end up with a cute little friend. Just don't overdo it. And please, don't feed them with junk food.
I took some important lessons from my first attempt to make a realistic natural landscape while making Everret Green, and I think the result now is better than ever. A better variety of plants and other landscape features, and more flowers and animals than ever. So leave the city behind you, explore the nature, watch the animals from safe distant, listen to the songs of the birds, and be careful with the bears.
The tour is over, as well as my job on this city. I hope you enjoyed it... and I hope the next city will not take me that long 
. The next entry will have night shoots of Hazelfield. See you there 
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