Ballardian

From the Glasgow Sunday Herald, 31 July 2005 -

Are we learning to love the high life? Graffiti-daubed hellholes or design classics for swanky urban living? Barry Didcock considers society’s continuing edifice complex

“…there is a growing band for whom the high-rise is a covetable design classic, offering the prospect of loft-style living with great views but without the hefty price tag. They’re the ones who will whitewash every wall they haven’t already knocked down and then try to sand the floors – the sort of people who know the difference between Le Creuset and Le Corbusier.
No matter which camp you fall into, it’s hard to disagree on one thing: as property prices continue to rise and urban space becomes ever more precious, there are serious issues concerning the way our cities are developing and where we house the people who fill them.
…
JG Ballard used the multi-storey building as a metaphor for a lawless society in his nightmarish 1975 novel, High-Rise, set in a luxury tower block. The previous year The Towering Inferno hit cinema screens all over the world, based on two novels, The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N Scortia.
…”