Live in a two-mile high termite mound

[Bitchkoma]

So here is the vision of one crazy architect.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee260/iskandarreza/mile-high-ultima-tower.jpg

Here is the cool part:


Surrounded on all sides by a lake, the building would use building integrated photo-voltaic solar cells to meet most of the electrical energy requirements. The tower would also use Atmospheric Energy Conversion to exploit the differences in atmospheric pressure at the bottom and top of the tower and convert this differential into electrical power. Wind turbine energy would also be used to power the tower.

Taking a cue from the principles of transpiration and cohesion (Joly-Dixon’s cohesion-tension theory) as used by the tree to move water from roots to aerial parts, the designers are working on a method of carrying water from the bottom of the tower to the top utilizing water potential difference between the two points.

It's organic!

Read more @ Inhabitat MILE HIGH ULTIMA TOWER: Vertical eco city works like a tree (http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/03/ultima-tower-the-vertical-green-city-that-works-like-a-tree/#more-8649)

[Yo Mama]

Fucking genius!!! And it reminds me of fantasy artwork. I'd totally live there.

[Foxtrot Oscar]

That's no so far fetched actually. There was discovery channel program a few years ago that stated that the design of this thing is the best choice to go higher and I'm sure there were or maybe still are plans for a tower something like that to go in the middle of Hong Kong habour.

It would rox my socks.

Fox

[theeindiee]

What if a US govt sponsored terrorist cell hijacks one of the government's giant black triangle UFOs and crashes it into the two mile high tower during the work week, and ends up blaming it on the aliens?

What then?

[Bitchkoma]

That's assuming they do a disclosure.

Thinking about it, it might not be so bad. Maybe then people will stop fighting one another on this planet (and start conquering neighbouring worlds).

[GhostOfCaptSpaulding]

I'd like to highlight an interesting point made in the comments to the OP article:


Eric Hunting Says:
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May 11th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

The \’problems\’ of carbon, renewable energy use, and sustainability are systemic. They are products of the physical structure of our civilization and the only comprehensive solution to them is to alter that physical structure in a more appropriate way. The structure of civilization has historically tended to be keyed to the dominant sources of energy at any period in history and the logistics associated with its use and transportation. In the past civilization was greatly confined in physical density by the limits on transportation of key forms of energy, with waterways being the dominant means of bulk transit and the only portable energy forms being bulky and low in energy density. We have today a very physically dispersed civilization because our dominant fossil fuel forms of energy have featured very high energy density affording great energy portability, both in terms of distance from energy sources and potential dispersion of transit routes by virtue of reduced minimum scales of vehicles. We often complain about contemporary communities being designed around the automobile. However, it\’s more correct to say they are designed around gasoline because the automobile as it exists and functions now is the product of the energy characteristics of gasoline. Electric and gasoline cars evolved in parallel for most of their early history. But the growth market for automobiles was initially in the countryside, where portable energy was critical, public transportation non-existent, and the reach of urban power grids long delayed.

What does this have to do with mile high megacity towers? Well, imagine what the world would be like if we had never been able to make fractional distillation of crude oil cost-effective. No gasoline and so no long-range automobiles. So while oil might still have become a dominant energy source, it would not be used much outside the context of electricity production because it would be too filthy to burn in small vehicles and would normally only be transported around the world in bulk along few (rail and ship) transit routes. Civilization\’s structure would be confined to nodes along the bulk fossil fuel transport network and its local dispersion limited by the distribution of electric power. Electric cars and electric powered mass transit would be the norm by default. The end result? A civilization that looks like a cross between the Steam Age and the Space Age. A world that looks very much like the world depicted in this Eugene Tsui design.

But what does an imaginary world without gasoline have to do with this? Well, isn\’t that what we aspire to now? You see, there has never really been a technical \’problem\’ with renewable energy. It has always worked in some degree. It just operated under very different logistical limitations compared to fossil fuels -logistics very similar to that of Steam Age energy sources like coal and unrefined oil. We invented the \’problem\’ of renewable energy by demanding that it conform to the logistics of a very different form of energy -gasoline- rather than the more logical tactic of adapting our civilization\’s physical structure to suit its natural logistics -because it\’s sort of difficult for civilization to physically contract given the way property markets work. Governments don\’t reign-in urban property values so there\’s little incentive for contraction. But if you can design a new form of city that challenges the suburban ideas of standard of living and reduce property values by going upward instead of outward it becomes a more viable prospect. THIS is the real message of Tsui\’s design -as well as the arcologies of Paulo Soleri. What they have been trying to tell us for a long time is that we have to physically change how and where we live to be able to live -and live well- in the context of the logistics imposed by sustainability. To sell sustainability on a model of progress and improved standard of living rather than sacrifice, as has been environmentalism\’s tradition for a long time. Levittown is still Levittown even if it\’s made out of straw bale and has solar panels on the roofs. And the best way to show your love for nature is to leave it alone. This is what these designs -in a rather exaggerated way- are trying to say.

A few more details can be gleaned from the following: The "Ultima" Tower, Two-mile High Sky City (http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html)

From the above:


All residential neighborhoods are located at the outer and inner edge of the building closest to views panoramic views and/or sunlight. The square footage between the neighborhood zones are reserved for retail or commercial use depending upon location. Internal taxi cab vehicles carry persons from one end of a floor to the other end at the larger diameter lower floor levels. Taxi drivers would be paid by the home and business owners association so that drivers are residents of the building who earn a livelihood from working there.

I could so be happy being a taxi-driver in such a place.

[Yo Mama]

No matter how fucked things get, there is always hope.

[Watcher-In-The-Shadows]

Kewl....
Looks like what they said Arcologies would look like.