Concordia
A domed stone market hall behind a columned portico with a name board, across a plaza in the dense civic quarter of Noordung.

The capital quarter

Three stone halls on the streets of Noordung (Rotor 2) run the station's money and its law: the Exchange, Charter Hall and the Court. They stand on the ground at a full 1 g, under the same artificial sky as the houses around them.

See on the map

What you see

Noordung is the second rotor, paired with Tsiolkovsky and turning the same way, and it is the station's capital quarter. Its city was drawn by the same generator as Arbor Quarter from its own seed, then weighted toward dense urban cores and civic land. The streets are paved and stately, with green squares between the towers.

A paved street with a stately stone frontage on the left, a green square ahead and a tower district on the horizon.
A paved civic street in Noordung with a stately frontage on one side and a green square ahead. Open this view

Three halls stand out. Each has a name board over its portico, set in capitals, so a resident walking past always knows where they are. The Exchange and the Court are about 800 m apart, on neighbouring streets. Charter Hall stands about five kilometres around the ring from both, in another of Noordung's core districts.

The Exchange

A domed market hall behind a portico, with a colonnade on its own plaza. Energy and compute for the whole station are priced and traded here. Those two things are what Concordia sells: solar platforms with computers behind them, whose answers travel to Earth as light. The economy page has the numbers and the reason the watts leave as bits.

A domed stone market hall behind a columned portico with a name board, across a plaza in the dense civic quarter of Noordung.
The Exchange: a domed market hall behind a columned portico, across its plaza. Open this view

Open in the simulation: Stand on the plaza

Charter Hall

A vaulted hall behind a portico, with two gate towers on its lawn. It is the seat of the Concordia Charter Authority, the body that holds the station's charter. Why the station has a charter at all, and who it answers to, is set out under Charter and law.

The front of Charter Hall: tall arched windows and a columned portico under a name board, with the towers of the quarter behind.
Charter Hall from the street: tall arched windows and a columned portico, under the name board. Open this view

Open in the simulation: Stand at the portico

The Court

A clock-roofed hall with a columned portico and pediment, and a monument column on its plaza. The arbitration courts sit here, in the same quarter as the Exchange. They stand a short walk from the market because deals struck there are settled here. The law they work within is set out under Charter and law: markets inside, on top of a strict physical constitution.

A columned portico with a pediment and a black name board on a street of stone civic frontages, with a resident on the steps.
The Court: a columned portico and pediment on a street of civic frontages, with its name board over the steps. Open this view

Open in the simulation: Stand in the street

Why a capital rotor

The station puts its money in one rotor and its estates in another. Noordung carries the Exchange, the Charter Hall and the Court, and O'Neill (Rotor 4) holds the large lakeside plots, because on a habitat the scarcest luxury is open ground under the sky. Who lives here covers the owners, the dividend every resident receives and why 400,000 people live on a station that needs only hundreds to run it.

Copper-crowned towers and spires seen from above, with megaframe ribs and the far side of the curved world beyond.
Noordung from 120 m up: copper-crowned towers and spires with the megaframe rising between them. Open this view

Key numbers

1.0 gweight at the street
about 0.8 kmExchange to Court
about 5 kmCharter Hall to the Exchange, around the ring
14 hoursthe length of Noordung's day, the longest on the station
15.7 kmthe ring that the three halls stand on

Visit

Open in the simulation: Noordung: The Exchange Open in the simulation: Noordung: Charter Hall Open in the simulation: Noordung: The Court Open in the simulation: Noordung: Civic Street Open in the simulation: Noordung: Crowned Towers From 120 m

Nearby

The economy page explains what the buildings are for. The neighbourhood page shows what an ordinary street looks like.

Who pays for Concordia

Nothing in the old trend lines builds a city of two billion tonnes in ten years.

Arbor Quarter

Arbor Quarter is a neighbourhood on the floor of Tsiolkovsky (Rotor 1), where the ground weighs what it does on Earth.

The megaframe city

Above the streets, a lattice of piers and ring beams holds a second city on plates, bridges and terraces. The lattice is the megaframe.

  • Who pays for Concordia Nothing in the old trend lines builds a city of two billion tonnes in ten years.
  • Arbor Quarter Arbor Quarter is a neighbourhood on the floor of Tsiolkovsky (Rotor 1), where the ground weighs what it does on Earth.
  • The megaframe city Above the streets, a lattice of piers and ring beams holds a second city on plates, bridges and terraces. The lattice is the megaframe.