The Old.
The Illinois
In 1956 Frank Lloyd Wright designed a super skyscraper for Chicago that would be 1 mile high with 528 stories and 18.64 million square feet of space. It would be home to the entire city government as well as living space for 100,000 people.Wright thought that the idea was feasible even at the time he designed it. There were two main problems with the concept though. 1. the steel would sway so much in the high winds that it would be uncomfortable for anyone in the upper floors 2. there would not be enough space in the bottom floors for the elevators needed for all 528 floors of the giant structure. Wright's solution to this problem was to have 5-story tall, atomically fueled elevators. A genius far ahead of his time.
The Now.
Burj Dubai
The Burj Dubai is now the world's tallest structure at 2,684 ft. The design is said to be reminiscent of Wright's Illinois building. The 160 story tower is not yet finished but people will be moving in by the end of this year. It contains two-story elevators that will be the world's fastest at over 37 mph, though they considered having the world's first three-story elevators. The interior is designed by Giorgio Armani and all 700 luxury apartments were sold within eight hours of being on the market. The entire project cost about $4.1 billion.
Nakheel Tower
Dubai throws their hat in the ring again with the concept originally called Al Burj (burj meaning tower in Arabic). And then renamed Tall Tower, before finally settling on Nakheel Tower (the name of the architect company). Such clever naming. The original design called for the tower to be slightly taller than the almost completed Burj Dubai. However, recent reports have stated that it will be the first structure taller than 1km, even as high as 1.4km (4,593 ft). It is expected to be completed around 2010.
The Fuck?
Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid
The Mega-City Pyramid is exactly what it sounds like. The idea is to build a giant pyramid over Tokyo Bay that would be used for business, leisure, and housing for 750,000 people. The structure is planned to cover almost 10 miles at the base and contain about 34 square miles of space inside. At 2004 m high it would be 12 times taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. One advantage of the mega-city is that it would be safer from tsunamis. One disadvantage is that if one truss fails the whole structure and 750,000 people will crash into the sea. The design is currently impossible to build due to its size. However the architects are hoping for the invention of super-strong, lightweight building materials such as carbon nanotubes to be invented in the near future. Right now scientists are researching robots to build this behemoth.
X-Seed 4000
This isn't going to happen. Ever. This is the largest building ever to be designed for construction. The sea-based structure would house 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. The X-Seed 4000 is modeled after Mount Fuji and at 4000m high would actually surpass the mountain in height. It would be the first building with a need to adjust air pressure at its upper floors to accommodate humans living comfortably. It is said that this project is on the same scale of difficulty as terraforming - the hypothetical process of modifying another planet's atmosphere, temperature, topography, and ecology to be similar to that of Earth.
I thought Wright hated skyscrapers, because his philosophy was that a structure should look like a part of its environment. Like it came out of the ground (hence, the horizontal nature of his buildings in the Prairie style.) That's why he hated New York. So, that's news to me. Really neat. Maybe I'm mistaken.
ReplyDeleteDid you do all this in yr freetime?
that was incredibly interesting to read. kudos.
ReplyDeletegreg you're right he did hate skyscrapers and thought they were unnatural but he said this one would be organic because it was like a tree trunk with many branches. this was late in his life and apparently he thought by this time that most cities with incorrigible because of skyscrapers and this was supposed to be his solution for urban sprawl.
ReplyDeletethanks guys. this is the result of a 5-hour internet tangent that started with me looking at wright's houses.
Ahh, cool!
ReplyDeleteYeah, this was incredibly interesting.
Well written too, I might add.
ReplyDeleteSPACE ELEVATORS NOAWWWWWWWWWWWW.
ReplyDeletei cant remember what building or where it was but they were considering using vertical bullet trains as elevators
ReplyDeletegreg-FLW designed ton's of office buildings late in his career. but most of them have been torn down.
ReplyDeletedanny-why have you not shared your interest in historic architecture with me i am exploding with excitement. we will go on a FLW tour of oak park soon.