General Research >Our Suburban Future
"Once large-lot, suburban residential landscapes are built, they are hard to unbuild."
—Christopher B. Leinberger, "The Next Slum?"
In the near future, the world's oil reserves have run dry. Cheap and abundant fuel has disappeared along with the lifestyle it helped to create in the post World War II U.S. suburbs. Populations have stratified into massively overcrowded central slums, while the sprawling suburbs have been left abandoned and decaying. This is Futroit, city of the future.
The infrastructure of the suburbs is likely to remain behind long after its original uses have proven untenable. Some experts predict that, cut off from jobs and economic development, a new culture of poverty, crime and dysfunction will arise in the suburbs similar to the spread of such social ills in U.S. inner cities in the 1960s and 70s. Others predict wholesale abandonment as the long distances and cavernous homes become unlivable even by the poor.
Domestibeasts allow for human survival in this transformed landscape. By using suburban signage, roads, power lines, water pipes and other features, Domestibeasts manouver through the post-collapse environment efficiently and sustainably.