Ballard was fascinated by dreams of ultra high density, by "edge   cities" or endlessly sprawling suburbs, by freeways. He had an eye for   understanding how places really worked, and he looked at the places in   between, where the notion of tradition is absurd. He explored business   parks, airports and malls, the backlands and the badlands of the   modern world. He managed to touch the imagination of architects as   diverse as Nigel Coates and Rem Koolhaas, who shared his interest in   dystopia. He ushered architects who saw themselves as modernists out   of the innocence of hi-tech – as personified by Dan Dare – into a much   stranger but more poetic vision of the future.