It’s not a new thought that we’re living in the age of science fiction. But there’s a huge gap between knowing this and reading about it in a feature article in our newspaper.

The piece–fronted by an artist’s impression of a city of giant green cat scratching poles–describes the wild pipe dreams of Dutch architect Winy Maas, and presents his projects as unique, utiopian, and above all unrealisable. The architect, the piece claims, likes to design highly innovative urban projects, and doesn’t mind that they can exist only in his (excellent) CAD system.

But then I read on to the paragraph that took my breath away, by casually mentioning that the cat scratching poles will be completed in 2011, in the city of Gwang Kyo, South Korea. Wow.

Click the image, check out the other photos, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll start looking into Korean language courses.