Clouds Architecture Office Unveils Plans for the World’s Tallest Skyscraper Hanging from Space Asteroid
Renzo Piano once said: “Architects spend an entire life with this unreasonable idea that you can fight against gravity.” However, the “unreasonable” idea might turn out to be reasonable after all. After Oiio Architecture Studio has proposed its 1.2km long bending tower, trying to beat the extra height with more length, now Clouds Architecture Office proposes to beat height by building a hanging skyscraper from space.
Courtesy of Clouds Architecture Office
New York-based Cloud Architecture Office (CAO) has revealed plans for Analemma tower, the world’s highest skyscraper whose foundations will be fixed into an orbiting space asteroid and not the Earth’s soil. This way, the architects believe they will not be limited by the ground’s height restrictions. “Harnessing the power of planetary design thinking, it taps into the desire for extreme height, seclusion, and constant mobility,” says the architects who expect that the sales price for such a tower will be unprecedentedly high. “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.” That is probably one reason why the architects propose to construct this extraordinary tower over Dubai, the city which currently houses the world’s tallest skyscraper, and whose tall building construction costs are one-fifth of their costs in New York City.
Courtesy of Clouds Architecture Office
The tower parts will be prefabricated and they will be lifted from Earth to be plugged into the core hanging from an asteroid by cables. CAO justifies the use of asteroid as a substitute foundation for this project by saying, “Manipulating asteroids is no longer relegated to science fiction,” they said, explaining how a 2015 mission by the European Space Agency had proved the ability to land on a spinning comet.” They added, “NASA has scheduled an asteroid retrieval mission for 2021 which aims to prove the feasibility of capturing and relocating an asteroid.” The tower is planned to follow an orbit taking the “8” shape, returning to the same point at the same time every day. Its lowest and slowest point on that orbit will be over midtown Manhattan, where the tower residents will capable of exiting the building via parachutes.
Courtesy of Clouds Architecture Office
Solar panels would be installed on the uppermost levels of the tower to power it up. Those upper levels lie beyond the atmosphere, and so their continuous exposure to the sun is guaranteed. On the other hand, the water will be supplied from the condensation of clouds and rainwater.
The tower will offer business and office space on its lower floors, while the upper two-thirds of its floors will be residential. The windows will vary in size and shape throughout the tower, based on the atmospheric pressure and temperature. For example, the windows at the top levels, beyond the troposphere, would be rounded on the elevation to take on the extra pressure, however, the inhabitants of these floors would also get the privilege of an extra 40 minutes of sunlight.
