I thought this was pretty cool when I saw it on the news yesterday. Don't think I'd want to live there though. But it would make for an interesting and pretty view for the rest of us.


moving skyscraper

LabRat

He's kidding, right?

I think he meant "more than once."

Something that big and complex and lacking in tolerances would run okay for the first fifty days or so, and then they'd have to lock the whole thing down to fix a turbine or replace the ball bearings under the bottom apartment or replace the wiring where some rat has chewed through or repair a jammed apartment or charge all the tenants for cleaning up the barf in the hallways from the visitors who "just can't handle the shifting view."

And where will the elevators be? How will you exit your apartment to get to them? Who will pay for repairing or replacing the bent apartments (from metal fatigue)?

That's going to be one of those expensive engineering disasters we see in a few years on the History Channel or on Discovery International. "It was an interesting, even revolutionary concept, but it didn't work in the real world."

Might work on Mars, though, with its lower gravity and on a smaller scale. Assuming, of course, that the air is dense enough to run the turbines. Or the concept might work on the Moon, using solar panels to feed the machines. I just don't see it as a viable concept here on the Earth. I think it'll be one more overly-ambitious reach for mankind.

I'm willing to be wrong, though. It would be neat to see it work.

Yeah, there are already a lot of raised eyebrows going on in the industry, apparently. But the architect seems unfazed, saying that anything radically new and innovative is always difficult for people to envisage being able to work. So it doesn't seem to be denting his confidence any.

The elevators is interesting. I hadn't thought of that and you're right - the design as I've seen it explained didn't seem to incorporate any. Each apartment seems to take up one whole floor. Which makes no sense, does it? Maybe tenants are supposed to absail down the outside. I think for a purchase price of $36 million dollars I'd want an easy route to the ground floor, myself.

Unless...there's a central, circular or square core in the middle of the building and that's where they're sited. It doesn't look as though there is, but that's about all I can think of.

I have to say that I'm fairly sceptical, too. If it ever was built, I wouldn't be surprised if it fell down a year later.

LabRat

I saw it on the news myself yesterday. Well, I'll believe when I see it in the real world. Anyway, like Terry said - how long would it run until it got totally stuck, maybe so that half the tenants were caught on the eighty-seventh floor (or the sixty-third, for that matter)?

Ann

Sounds like one apartment per floor. And the apartments don't go up and down. Just around. At the apartment owner's choosing (and possibly randomly when not given commands).

The elevator would be in the central column around which everything rotates.

I would be worried about having a wind farm above and below me. I don't know how much noise those turbines make, but a row of giant metal fans whirling just outside my floor and ceiling would be a little disconcerting.

I'd also worry about the building's balance, if everyone decided to move to the same side at once. I'm sure he's taken that into account somehow, but it seems like it could be a problem.

As for each configuration being once in a lifetime... That's up to the residents, isn't it?

Must admit, though, that all of this reminds me of "Isaac Asimov's Robot City," a series of books by various authors based loosely off of some of Isaac Asimov's ideas. It takes place in a city built out of "chemfets," microscopic cell-like robots that connect to form a greater whole. The entire city is effectively one giant fluid robot, and it reconfigures itself as it deems necessary and efficient. So you can go to sleep on the 65th floor and wake up on the 89th or the 12th, depending on how the rest of the building has flowed around your apartment. A little disorienting for the residents at times...

My guess is that there's a central hub with elevators, bathrooms, kitchens etc. (I can't otherwise understand how they would get plumbing connections to work) and things like the bedrooms circle around it.

My best guess as to how the wind turbines would work is that they mean something more like a flat fan than normal windmill / propeller type wind turbines. Basically a rotating ring (also going around the hub) with a series of scoops on it like a water wheel. Something like this (actually a rotating sign) with a lot of blades and a very wide axis.



I really doubt that whoever came up with this idea has thought it through properly. The amount of maintainance needed to keep it going would be ridiculous.

Apart from any other problems, who the heck wants a kitchen, bathroom, etc. with little or no natural light? This scheme has to be aimed at VERY rich tenants, are there enough of them who will put up with the weird conditions and constant noise as it rotates?

No, looking at the video, it seems to be the entire apartment that rotates. The inside view looks more like a living room than a bedroom and each apartment clearly takes up one whole floor.

Looking at it, it is clear that you're talking about a central hub - the apartments seem to be made up of pods which fit onto this hub. Perhaps each room is one pod?

Still seems bizarre though.

LabRat

It's a central utility core / hub that doesn't rotate. Slightly more information here but he's being very coy about the plumbing.

I'd hate to think what the poor firemen that may have to perform rescues would do.

Maybe the plumbing is mostly self contained - like in an RV or something. But that sure would make hard to take care of. Hmmm... Maybe everyone has to go down the elevators (and are there stairs?) and go to the outhouses...

The architect invented a modular bathroom that is pre-assembled in the factory then plumbed in on site, widely used in hotel construction, so he has expertise in this area - but I just can't see how you'd get around the problems with the rotating joints etc. if it wasn't in the hub.

I can grasp the concept of it having a central hub and elevator shaft... I'm moving the the city if high rises soon enough.

However, I agree with the rest of you.. the ability to provide effective utilities into the apartments would be a huge concern...
Maintaining the services to the apartments in general would be a nightmare (let alone the rotating mechanisms for each level as someone alluded to).
And even the most robust of us would get motion sick at some point if the building was to 'ripple' as the animation showed.

I also agree that having giant wind turbines above and below you wouldn't be my first option... I don't know what kind of sound proofing the apartments would have but all the wind turbines I have been near have been quite noisy.

I'll be impressed if this becomes a reality, but I don't think this building is a practical design, and while it might be a gimmick for whichever city gets it to draw a few tourists, I don't see much of a future for it.