Ecumenopolis (from Ancient Greek οἰκουμένη (oikouménē) 'the inhabited world' and πόλις (pólis) 'city';lit. 'world city';pl. ecumenopolises orecumenopoleis) is the hypothetical concept of a planetwide city. It is primarily known as a stock setting inscience fiction, but has also received serious consideration in theoretical city planning and futurist concepts.
The word was invented in 1967 by theGreek city plannerConstantinos Apostolou Doxiadis to represent the idea that, in the future,urban areas andmegalopolises would eventually fuse, and there would be a single continuous worldwide city as a progression from the currenturbanization,population growth,transport andhuman networks.[1] According to Doxiadis, it was the fifteenth level ofekistic units and the most significant one as the uppermost echelon of the classification.[2] This concept was already current in science fiction in 1942, withTrantor inIsaac Asimov'sFoundation series.[3] When made public, Doxiadis' idea of ecumenopolis seemed "close to science fiction", but today is "surprisingly pertinent" according to geography researchers Pavle Stamenovic, Dunja Predic and Davor Eres,[1] especially as a consequence ofglobalization.
Doxiadis also created a scenario based on the traditions and trends of urban development of his time, predicting at first a Europeaneperopolis ("continent city") which would be based on thearea betweenLondon,Paris,Rhine-Ruhr andAmsterdam.[4] In 2008,Time magazine coinedNylonkong to linkNew York City,London, andHong Kong as the eperopolis of theAmericas,Euro-Africa andAsia-Pacific respectively.[5]
Before the term had been created, the concept had been previously discussed. The American religious leaderThomas Lake Harris (1823–1906) mentioned city-planets in his verses, and science fiction authorIsaac Asimov used the city-planetTrantor as the setting of some of hisFoundation novels.[6]
Inscience fiction, the ecumenopolis has become a frequent topic and was popularized in 1999 by the fictional city planetCoruscant in theStar Wars franchise, which is the capital of theGalactic Republic (laterEmpire) and home to theJedi Order.[7] Other ecumenopolises feature inStar Wars media, includingHosnian Prime,Nar Shaddaa andTaris.
InDune, the Harkonnens' home world of Giedi Prime is a heavily polluted ecumenopolis infamous for its gladiator arenas.
The concept is depicted in the video gameStellaris, where players are given the option of transforming planets into ecumenopolises, which provides a great deal of housing and space for industrial production through the construction ofarcologies, at the cost of making the planet's natural resources inaccessible.[8]
A central setting in thetabletop wargameWarhammer 40,000 is a portrayal of Earth in the far future, where it is described as having been transformed into a vast,Gothic-style ecumenopolis sometime during the 30th millennium AD after its establishment as the capital of an interstellar superpower known as the Imperium of Man. The ecumenopolis contains multiple continent-scale districts housing different branches of society and government, with the Imperial Palace alone taking up the entirety of theHimalayan Mountains. It is the focus of the "Siege of Terra" storyline of the widerHorus Heresy tie-in novel series.
InMagic: the Gathering, the plane ofRavnica is an ecumenopolis.[9]
DC Comics continuity featuresDarkseid's extra-dimensional home planet ofApokolips, often depicted as a hellish world covered entirely in industrial sprawl to feed Darkseid's brutal empire.[10]
The manga and film ofBlame! byTsutomu Nihei is set in a far future in which Earth has become the ruins of planet-covering city, which is suggested to be so large that it has consumed most of the Solar System as well, it may also be along the lines of ahollow-world ordyson shell. Some of his other works also take place in this same setting.
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