Wheel

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The wheel is the most common floor plan used in settlements in the United States. Each floor resembles a wagon wheel, with the "axle" being a large space on the floor and the spokes containing differently-zoned areas. The benefits of this plan are that it is easily expanded, unlike designs which resemble rectangular surface-type dwellings, and as it is expanded the space for individual rooms becomes more open. A darker, rarely spoken-of advantage is that spokes can be sealed off in the event of civil unrest or outbreaks of illness.

The wheel floor plan does have some disadvantages. As the smaller residential spaces closer to the hub are typically allotted to single people, there may be an incentive for people to marry for the larger space, leading to an increase in premature, potentially dysfunctional marriages. An experiment in Louisville found that when the waiting period for a new quarters allotment was extended to two years incidences of domestic violence dropped 15%, while the birth rate fell 8% compared to other hubs in the same city.

Vulnerability to failure is also an issue. As each spoke becomes longer, the load placed on water, air, and electricity conduits grows. A failure in any of these can imperil thousands of people, as happened when St. Louis experienced a Richter 5.3 earthquake in 2085 that damaged fifteen floors of eastward spokes, suffocating over a thousand and rendering the spokes uninhabitable for months. Modern design contains redundant services and robust earthquake protection measures.

Social aspects[edit | edit source]

Wheels usually lack most of the amenities necessary to function independently in order to eliminate tribalism or an insular, anti-social mentality which can lead to turmoil. Most wheels are therefore "single-purpose" and the majority of the community is forced to mingle. Necessary exceptions to this include daycare facilities, which are concentrated in residential wheels, and restaurants, which can be found in every wheel.

Poor or absent integration programs appears to be the primary cause of failure in autonomous settlements. Redundancy, although a good idea in principle, makes settlements a settlement socially dysfunctional. Settlements which are easily divided, such as those with wheels, are particularly susceptible to this.