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Two-mile-high urban termite mound to house planet's swarming
blog.wired.com — architect Eugene Tsui is taking the gigantic volcano tower concept to a whole new eco level, by taking design inspiration from the natural world. His new design for the Ultima Tower – a 2-mile high Mt Doom-esque structure - borrows design principles from trees and other living systems to reduce its energy footprint.
arlok789- 606 diggs
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- arlok789, on 05/18/2008, -11/+8Eco- Capitalism. Sweet.
- arlok789, on 05/18/2008, -3/+11And this was already submitted under the original link. I am dumb. Sorry!
- Qong, on 05/18/2008, -1/+1It's new to me! That is a pretty neat design though.
- LeeSoong, on 05/18/2008, -6/+1Urban Living reduces humans to insects,
every 'skyscraper' looks like a hive, with the
little worker bees expending the best years of their
collective life serving the master overlords,
for crumbs of food.
The best thing you can do if you live in a city: move out.
Let the cockroaches eat each other while you build your own homestead far, far away from the asphalt wasteland.- apetrie, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2You're generalizing way too much. Many urban areas are filled with green space, such as Toronto, and living in close proximity reduces our impact on the environment. The less humans spread out, the more we enable public transportation, the less land we flatten and the less resources we consume, and the more the rest of the world can be left to its own devices.
I've lived in a city most of my life and your depiction of the experience just tells me that you have no clue.
The best thing you can do if you live in a small town: move to the city.
Of course, its actually a personal choice and depends upon your job, family etc. but you are wrong about city life. Asphalt wasteland? Not my city, not many cities. If your city lacks sufficient green space, work towards changing that.
One link that says it better than I did: http://homeofthefuture.blogspot.com/2007/04/cities ...
- apetrie, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2You're generalizing way too much. Many urban areas are filled with green space, such as Toronto, and living in close proximity reduces our impact on the environment. The less humans spread out, the more we enable public transportation, the less land we flatten and the less resources we consume, and the more the rest of the world can be left to its own devices.
- jmpeagle, on 05/18/2008, -3/+49any energy it might save is going to be overwhelmed by the amount of energy it will need to build that thing
- EmileVictor, on 05/18/2008, -1/+4For every problem there is a simple solution.
And it's usually wrong. - ihavebeenseen, on 05/18/2008, -1/+3not to mention it would cost a few trillion build.
- DonTazeMeBro, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2$150 000 000 000.00 - A hundred fifty billion. The Burj Dubai costs 4.3 billion.
"At an estimated cost of $150 billion to build, it's unlikely that we'll see the Ultima ever come to fruit."
http://www.gizmag.com/ultima-tower-eugene-tsui-pop ...
- DonTazeMeBro, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2$150 000 000 000.00 - A hundred fifty billion. The Burj Dubai costs 4.3 billion.
- rescu911, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3Wouldn't the costs be offset somewhat by the idea that this one building would take the place of dozens of others? Or no?
Reminds me of the story of Paul McCartney buying a hybrid and having it shipped halfway around the world.- Drahkar, on 05/18/2008, -1/+1It would but people have trouble thinking in terms like that. Humanity's stuck in the 'see what is right in front of you' facet of existence. Its why we haven't started going further into space. It seems so overwhelming that even though we have the technology to do it, we don't even try.
- EmileVictor, on 05/18/2008, -1/+4For every problem there is a simple solution.
- biggles266, on 05/18/2008, -7/+1given a thought to earthquakes?
- jp12380, on 05/18/2008, -0/+7The wide base would help with that.
- protodon, on 05/18/2008, -0/+4looks damn stable to me.
- jonlarge, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3I don't know. Would it be flexible enough to avoid heavy winds?
- osuchasenuts, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2It will be stable to anything sans a real volcano coming up directly underneath it.
- h0ser, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2larger buildings like that, believe it or not, is more stable during an earthquake then the smaller ones. The huge weight being pushed down upon it acts in the same way a mountain would. Some of the biggest buildings in the world are more earthquake resistant then smaller ones.
- r55741, on 05/18/2008, -3/+22the anal cone of the gods
- dtele, on 05/18/2008, -4/+2Wow
- Nath4n, on 05/18/2008, -1/+7It's hard to even wrap your head around the size of this thing. The freaking base is as tall as the empire state building!
- jp12380, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2No, the base would be much longer then the empire state building is tall. If that chart is drawn to scale. The sears tower is taller the the empire state building and it looks like it would take 4 of those to cover the base more or less.
- adverse, on 05/18/2008, -5/+0Every heart beat high with joy at the news))
- noseeme, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3WHAT
- borez, on 05/18/2008, -0/+32Dugg for the giant "Eye in the sky" alien dick tower concept.
http://www.tdrinc.com/images/photos/large/eye_1.jp ...- theDrizzle, on 05/18/2008, -0/+6Two things:
1. It's designed by the same crazy mofo
2. The building has balls. Maybe he's a gay architect who gets really horny when he designs things? - Zeddd, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3That thing is extremely freaky looking. I could not see any municipality agreeing to have that crazy eyesore around... it would be so prominent too. It would definitely win "Eyesore of the Month"... perhaps "Eyesore of the Forever"
http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore.html
- theDrizzle, on 05/18/2008, -0/+6Two things:
- 888gavin, on 05/18/2008, -1/+11It would be neat to see something like this actually get made. I'm tired of hearing people's ideas, we can all make ideas, but only a handful of people can actually make those ideas happen.
- AirPortPanic, on 05/18/2008, -0/+4Agreed.. "Hey look I have an idea and render for a tower so large it connects to the moon!" wowwee words.
- LeeSoong, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3It looks like something out of 'Aliens',
but instead of posting the Wired link Advertisement Bomb,
post the original link to digg -
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/04/03/ultima-tower-t ...
(Wired can get their revenue off of someone other than digg.)
- AirPortPanic, on 05/18/2008, -0/+4Agreed.. "Hey look I have an idea and render for a tower so large it connects to the moon!" wowwee words.
- chrisbasham, on 07/22/2008, -4/+6I'd hate to be the window cleaner on that building.
- cdigioia, on 05/18/2008, -0/+8I'd hate to take the elevator.
And why is it colored brown? To give it more of that death-tower feel?- Vosona, on 05/18/2008, -0/+5I thought death-towers were an imposing black or pig-iron color, not brown like some giant mound of *****.
- cdigioia, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Isn't pig iron brown? (I'm Google image searching - I don't know independently)
*****-colored looks a little death-tower to me too though...perhaps giant insect overlords. - LeeSoong, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1The whole structure should be painted Pink,
and build a second tower too -
the giant nipples of the Earth.- cdigioia, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Those are some disturbingly shaped nipples
- cdigioia, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Isn't pig iron brown? (I'm Google image searching - I don't know independently)
- Vosona, on 05/18/2008, -0/+5I thought death-towers were an imposing black or pig-iron color, not brown like some giant mound of *****.
- graphictype, on 05/18/2008, -2/+1Would cost a fortunate to build be the benefits would outweigh the costs IMO
Here is a link to a more in depth article on the behemoth http://www.tdrinc.com/ultima.html- afidler, on 05/18/2008, -0/+4Wow, that first sentence hardly passes as English.
- graphictype, on 05/18/2008, -3/+4that's what happens when u start drinking at 7am
cheers
- noseeme, on 05/18/2008, -0/+18So, that'll cost about 40 trillion dollars, right?
- TheGuruStud, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1A couple more years in Iraq and some more tax breaks for the rich and we could've built that with the money :P
- DonTazeMeBro, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2$150 000 000 000.00 - A hundred fifty billion. The Burj Dubai costs 4.3 billion.
"At an estimated cost of $150 billion to build, it's unlikely that we'll see the Ultima ever come to fruit."
http://www.gizmag.com/ultima-tower-eugene-tsui-pop ...- TheGuruStud, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1*****, we could've built that thing like 100 times over with the money dubya has wasted!
- protodon, on 05/18/2008, -1/+5I can tell this is a huge advancement in technology because this is the kind of thing you always see on those super advanced alien worlds...on tv, but still!
- schnikies79, on 05/18/2008, -3/+7I would never live there.
- afidler, on 05/18/2008, -1/+10"inspired in part by the termite’s nest structures of Africa, the highest structure created by any living organism..."
hmmm, considering humans are 'living organisms,' I think this statement is quite false.- Netrilix, on 05/18/2008, -3/+9Perhaps they meant relative to the organism's size?
- Syphon8, on 05/18/2008, -0/+6We still win.
- stygyan, on 05/18/2008, -1/+3Perhaps they mean 'without using tools'.
- Netrilix, on 05/18/2008, -3/+9Perhaps they meant relative to the organism's size?
- magamiako, on 05/18/2008, -3/+4I find it interesting that they say stuff like "built to withstand natural disasters". Natural calamities have destroyed entire mountains and ecosystems in the blink of an eye. Something like this would have to be built in the middle of the US to generally be safe from most disasters.
Then there's the issue of snow removal, or perhaps using the snow to help cool the tower? That could be interesting.- st00f72, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1I say not even safe in the middle of the US. We do have quakes once in a while; anyway this monstrosity would be heavy enough to cause quakes!
- vigimice, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3I remember seeing something about this on tv recently. it was an interesting idea, and the design aspects made sense. using the cone design reduces surface area to be affected by wind as the building gets higher, so it wouldn't have as bad of a swaying pattern as some of the current skyscrapers. another interesting thing i saw was that due to the extreme height of the building, it would be less vulnerable to earthquakes since the damage done to buildings by quakes is usually a reaction to harmonic frequency between the ground and the height of the building.
I also remember it saying something about costing over $100billion to make and would tie up resources from all over the world to create since no one country could produce enough at once for it, so whatever eco-friendly stuff was in the blog, i'm not sure how long it would take to see the payout on it. the same program had something about a gibralter (sp?) bridge between spain and africa, and a city built on a barge...very outlandish stuff.- theDrizzle, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1I believe you may be referring to 'Engineering the Impossible' on Discovery, and if I'm not mistaken, the building was called The Millenium Tower in Hong Kong.
- WoollyMittens, on 05/18/2008, -0/+5Yes... this, flying cars, mars tourism.... what *****.
- venuspcs, on 05/18/2008, -1/+8TOWER OF BABYL 2.0
- hempydave, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2The end of this system of things " the book of revelation
- 4degrees, on 05/18/2008, -1/+8anyone else find it odd that the world trade center is not on that height comparison chart?
- hempydave, on 05/18/2008, -0/+5Shhhhhhh
- liuite, on 05/18/2008, -0/+15they should have hotel rooms on the top 1/2 of the building...this way their guests can join the mile high club without flying in an airplane
- venuspcs, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Or just visit Denver, CO and get laid.....hell I was at 12,000+ feet yesterday in New Mexico and was on the ground.
- Heavypettingzoo, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1dont need a hotel room, just a bathroom;)
- kingvik, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Don't need a bathroom, just a hall way.
- alecks, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1I don't need any room... just a girl.
- kingvik, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Don't need a bathroom, just a hall way.
- isny, on 05/18/2008, -1/+12So what? I'm planning a 5 mile high building. Here is the preliminary Design:
^
/ \
Height=5 miles - venuspcs, on 05/18/2008, -1/+5Imagine if they built this thing in Southern Colorado on a 14,000 feet mountian, the one that houses the highest altitude road on Earth. That mountain is 14,400 feet at the summit, add to that 10,600 feet building and you have a 25,000 feet altitude at the top. That is a whopping 4.73 MILES ABOVE SEA LEVEL. You would have to pump pure oxygen into the top 2/3rds of the building so the people could freaking breathe.
- Skootles, on 05/18/2008, -1/+9Exactly. That's why they wouldn't ***** do it.
- chrismusaf, on 05/18/2008, -1/+4Isn't this basically an arcology from Sim City?
- Syphon8, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2I don't think it can blast off into space to found new worlds.
- theDrizzle, on 05/18/2008, -1/+18As a civil engineer, I just have to say...I would hate to be on that project.
- MadOgre, on 05/18/2008, -2/+8No freaking way, no thank you. I'll stick with my two story ranch house, thank you very much. I wouldn't even visit that Suess Tower.
- rock774, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1dug for having a 2 story ranch
- MadOgre, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1It started out one, but I wanted more room. What can I say. Ogre Ranch was originally a one room cabin built over a hundred years ago. In the 70's it was expanded into typical ranch house, and then that was lifted and a full basement put in underneath... so it didn't expand in the normal manner. You wouldn't believe the electrical and plumbing problems in this place.
But this gave me some insight. Why build Up, when you can build Down and be more efficient all the way around. Heating and cooling become much easier for example.
- MadOgre, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1It started out one, but I wanted more room. What can I say. Ogre Ranch was originally a one room cabin built over a hundred years ago. In the 70's it was expanded into typical ranch house, and then that was lifted and a full basement put in underneath... so it didn't expand in the normal manner. You wouldn't believe the electrical and plumbing problems in this place.
- rock774, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1dug for having a 2 story ranch
- aserer511, on 05/18/2008, -1/+4because anyone would want to live/work in that.
- DonTazeMeBro, on 05/18/2008, -1/+1What about solar cells on the outside of the building providing energy... what happens if in a decade down the road, more efficient ways of harnessing the suns energy are discovered...
- MoxieKills, on 05/18/2008, -0/+2Humankind's enemies will quake in fear of our new sky-phallus! I approve!
- thx0138, on 05/18/2008, -0/+3Caves of Steel, it's only a matter of time.
- DemonSpawn77, on 05/18/2008, -0/+5When will this perpetual penis measuring contest stop?
- hempydave, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1"giant insect overlords" }:>
- Jookly, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2I think it is a good idea.
- st00f72, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1"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."
This seems like a whimsical, untested idea to me, like a perpetual motion machine... but then I'm not a scientist. So can anyone explain to me how this "atmospherical energy conversion" theory actually produces more energy that it consumes? - WackyWorld, on 05/18/2008, -1/+0Huuuuuge
- Marrach, on 05/18/2008, -0/+7 I notice that all the future concepts for living spaces all involve everyone being a Renter but not an OWNER. Plus does everyone get a Window? Or do Most poor schmucks get stuck with endless graffiti covered hallways and non-working lifts with the Powers-that-Be turning off power and water when the lower classes get restless?
Yeah, pile all the poor and working class into the arcology tower-- leaving the surrounding landscape free for the WEALTHY to build their techno-mansions surrounded by square miles of managed parkland and grazing horse?
I have a problem with this concept simply because we know what human nature gravitates towards. - dstz, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1Looks cool. Will they implement "night walking", too?
- sombreroman, on 05/18/2008, -0/+1So...there's just going to millions of square feet of sunless offices / homes / storage inside? Seems to me the real challenge of building / designing really tall structures for humans has been to make them tall *without* needing a really wide base and tapering to the top.
- lalolost, on 05/18/2008, -1/+2I would hate riding that elevator
- TomPhoolery, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2yay arcologies!!!
- BeyondGoodNEvil, on 05/19/2008, -0/+2Frank Lloyd Wright's apprentice Paolo Soleri designed buildings like this in the 60s and 70s. I think it's inevitable to have structures like this replace cities and have high speed transportation between structures. It'll leave plenty more park and farm land open, and minimize the need for cars/roads/parking lots, which take up so much space in each city.
- topace3000, on 05/19/2008, -1/+1What a stupid idea. How could a massive tower that shoots high into the air possibly be an ecologically or economically efficient design? Deeply flawed and ridiculous to the core, and won't happen any time soon.
- c0mputar, on 05/19/2008, -0/+0What's this obsession with going up? Going down is so much more sensable. Tap into geothermal energy, no wind problem, put it in a giant sand box and then you have no earthquake problem, you can use the surroundings as floor support, instead of it all being focused down into the base, etc... seriously. These idealists need to grow some brain cells.
- 1que, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1hmm i think i saw this on digg about 7 months ago under "10 new buildings that might be made" or something like that. yeah well anyway old.
- DestroyFascism, on 05/19/2008, -0/+1Yeah ill just step onto the deck for a smoke......
- rohitnarayan, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0YOU GUYS WOULD LOVE TO SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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