New York studio Clouds Architecture Office has proposed a unique way to bypass height restriction laws on new supertall buildings: by dangling a skyscraper from an orbiting asteroid.
Clouds said the "Analemma Tower" would use a "universal orbital support system", whereby an object is tethered to a satellite in space using a cable.
The firm said the "speculative" building could be constructed "anywhere in the world and transported to its final location", suggesting Dubai as it "has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one fifth the cost of New York City construction".
The speculative project would follow a geostationary orbit, although it could also move in the shape of a figure "8", returning to exactly the same position in the sky each day. It could travel daily between the northern and southern hemispheres, with the slowest part of the towers trajectory occurring over New York City.
The firm says that office space could be built at the lower end of the tower, while housing could be located approximately two-thirds of the way up.
The size and shape of windows changes with height to account for pressure and temperature differentials. The amount of daylight increases by 40 minutes at the top of the tower due to the curvature of Earth.
Analemma would get its power from space-based solar panels installed above the atmosphere, meaning it would have constant exposure to sunlight, with a greater efficiency than conventional PV installations.
Water would be filtered and recycled in a semi-closed loop system, replenished with condensations captured from clouds and rainwater.
Clouds said: "Harnessing the power of planetary design thinking, it taps into the desire for extreme height, seclusion and constant mobility.
"If the recent boom in residential towers proves that sales price per square foot rises with floor elevation, then Analemma Tower will command record prices, justifying its high cost of construction.
"Manipulating asteroids is no longer relegated to science fiction. In 2015 the European Space Agency sparked a new round of investment in asteroid mining concerns by proving with its Rosetta mission that it’s possible to rendezvous and land on a spinning comet.
"Nasa has scheduled an asteroid retrieval mission for 2021 which aims to prove the feasibility of capturing and relocating an asteroid."
Images courtesy of Clouds Architecture Office
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Bonkers, will Building Control Officers have to be astronauts?
April 1st??
Pie-in -the -sky
It would be a revolution in the field of Architecture and a long awaited solution towards reducing the density of concrete mass on the virgin soil.
It can be the start of new era of living outside of Earth which empowers materialising the long dream of livelihood at moon or Mars.
Too much of a utopian idea.
Not going to take us anywhere apart from being a showpiece in technology.
Even if it is built it shall be astronomical in terms of cost , much beyond the dreams of the majority of the people who inhabit the earth and no where near to solving any density problem .
Not sure you’d need the tower crane in space; so there’s a cost saving straight away!
I only have one question. How do you go about getting in and out of a flying tower?