Magellan/Glasshouses

When Magellan was first promoted to Class 4 status, the Worldwide Civilisation Committee briefly considered the idea of constructing a huge Torsion Glass roof, to provide shelter from the elements for construction projects, without blocking out valuable sunlight. This dome would also form an effective 'ground level' for building upper levels in the new mega-city. The project was quickly cancelled, as the Committee discovered that it was vastly more expensive than allowing large companies to erect self-supporting megatowers. Now, about 30 mile-wide glass shelves remain in the city, most of them immediately above city levels A75, A150 or A200.

These shelves had to be specially constructed, at a massive factory in what is now <address>Basin</address>. Directly underneath the factory, a shaft was sunk to provide geothermal power for the forging, and around this was a residential district containing a single cylindrical block of homes for 2400 contracted labourers for the plant. This habitation block, and the service industries which were later dug out around it, forms the sector later known as <address>[1]</address>. It extends from level A2 down to B120, while the geothermal plant goes all the way down to G74 (with the main entrance being north of the workers' cylinder on G00/B114).

In 869, it was discovered that the company contracted to drill out these original complex had used cheap and unreliable methods, allowing the entire habitation cylinder to slip down the shaft as the plasticrete lower levels started to wear out. As an emergency measure to prevent subsidence destabilising higher sectors, the whole of Glasshouses was evacuated, and many areas filled in with liquid ceramics which, it is believed, should have sufficient strength to support the weight of the Gate Basin landing field. It is still possible (but illegal) to access some parts of Glasshouses, even though the central shaft is now filled with a mesh of girders, and the portal above it sealed. For this reason, some people have started to suspect that criminal gangs are using this place for trading, storage of stolen goods, and sheltering wanted individuals. As yet, the danger from collapsing structures is rated too great for a police expedition, however. (The city council filled in enough areas, and shored up or reinforced walls, to ensure that the superstructure can take the weight of other sectors. No such measures were wasted on non-supporting buildings).

It is a common misconception that the sector's name is somehow linked to its buildings' fragility: The risk from subsidence wasn't even discovered at the time the name was chosen.