What happens when a building, or town is abandoned?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the decay rate and visual deterioration of abandoned buildings or towns, exploring how they can be modeled to appear realistically neglected over time. Participants are interested in the factors influencing decay, including building materials, environmental conditions, and the time scale of abandonment.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant seeks to understand the decay rate of abandoned structures to model a neighborhood realistically, noting that it depends on various factors such as building materials and environmental conditions.
  • Another participant references the series "Life After People" as a relevant resource for understanding the effects of abandonment over time.
  • Participants suggest looking at images from locations like Chernobyl and Fukushima as examples of abandoned sites, which may provide visual references for decay.
  • Ghost towns are mentioned as a general category of abandoned places that could provide insights into the topic.
  • There is an acknowledgment that the answer to the decay question varies significantly based on the time scale considered.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of ideas and resources related to the decay of abandoned structures, but there is no consensus on specific decay rates or visual characteristics, indicating that multiple competing views remain.

Contextual Notes

The discussion does not resolve the complexities of decay rates, the influence of different materials, or the specific time frames that affect the appearance of abandonment.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in urban decay, modeling environments, or the effects of abandonment on structures may find this discussion relevant.

Tyrion101
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I've been trying to do research on the decay rate at which stuff starts looking like it's a hundred, and falling apart, but a brief attempt at a google search only gave me results for mostly articles about Olympic venues that have been abandoned. Which is nice but not exactly what I want. I suppose what I need are either some answers here, or a better question I can ask google. My brother and I are modeling a small neighborhood (in 3d) that should have the appearance of being abandoned, but I want it to look fairly realistic, in terms of wear and tear. I suppose it depends on the building, and the building materials, and the things inside, and environment. So, at what point would a neighborhood look like it had not survived a war, from simply just being left there?
 
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You can look for pictures of Chernobyl or Fukushima. There is also an island somewhere near NYC where formerly has been a psychiatry, and a Japanese (?) island that hosted miners (?) and is now abandoned.
 
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Two things came to my mind: The series Life After People and this video that I saw a while ago. I When I looked it up again, I came across a lot of other material. Of course, the answer depends very much on your time scale.

EDIT: Sorry, @Bystander, overlooked your link to Life After People.
 
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