Spotted over at BLDGBLOG is the winning entry for the ‘eVolo Architecture Skyscraper competition by Somnath Ray that called for entries to propose the future of tall buildings. Ray’s entry proposed an organic, parasitic structure grafted to surrounding buildings.

“With ever- increasing densities and changing programs, Para-city grows in the entire three-dimensional space of its host; the existing skyscrapers of the present urban landscape. Para-city feeds from the service-cores of its host (since sufficient service spaces already exist within the host-structure) to potentially free itself as a program-less ludic-zone, implying a radical overcoming of any spatial hierarchy.”

I will admit that I have my reservations about parasite projects, throwing them in the same barrel as Shipping Container projects, but these are certainly arresting images. And they imagine a kind of building that, like the shimmering, constantly evolving towers in William Gibson’s ‘Virtual Light’ built of nano-machines, seem somewhat inevitable. After all, the host buildings are already in existence; wireless networks being exploited by war drivers, the venting of mechanical cooling systems keeping the homeless alive as they sleep over exhaust vents.

And of course, well, ‘of course’ only if we share a misspent youth and adulthood with our noses stuck in the picture books, these images call to mind the Aquarius Complex in Ronin.

Ronin, by Frank Miller, tells the story of a 13th Century Samurai, whose drive to revenge his master’s slaying at the hand of demon Agat, leads to his being reborn in the 21st Century where said demon has set up shop. Swordplay and intrigue ensue.

The action of the 21st Century takes place in a dystopian New York City that has been overrun by thugs and mutants. Sprawled throughout and completely dominating the city is the Aquarius Complex, the headquarters of the Aquarius Corporation, a self reproducing and repairing structure under the control of the AI, Virgo and constructed out of ‘biocircuitry’.

Over the course of the book, as the Ronin closes in on Agat - who has incidentally taken the form of Taggart, the owner of Aquarius - the giant structure slowly envelopes New York City. As is the wont of a glacial blob of sentient, inhabitable machinery.

That’s Casey McKenna above, kickass Head of Security for the Aquarius Complex, stalking its halls, looking for answers yo.