Squint/Opera depicts living in ‘Flooded London’ in 2090
Creative digital studio Squint/Opera has re-released a series of curiously utopian visualisations depicting London in 2090 – when it has been taken back by the sea.
The five images of ‘Flooded London’ are snapshots of how humans might adapt to rising temperatures and sea levels, depicting a near-deserted urban environment where Canary Wharf is a fishing spot and you can jump from the Whispering Gallery in St Paul’s Cathedral into a water-filled basilica.
Squint/Opera originally created the images in 2008, fascinated by the future of cities and how humans respond to changing environments through technology and human behaviour. As the world is currently on the verge of a potential climate catastrophe, Squint/Opera decided to re-release the images, which have become more relevant than ever.
Last month the UK became the first country to declare a climate emergency and Squint/Opera felt it was the right time to revisit these images to help Londoners imagine how the seemingly abstract concept of climate change might affect their everyday lives, through familiar parts of the city.
Squint/Opera used photography, 3D modelling and digital manipulation to imitate some of the techniques of the super-idealistic Victorian landscape painters. Details are exaggerated and play with scale to present images that belie their composition.
