Location: Earth

Client: Humanity

Planning: 2019

Scale: 60 m² site area

Designers: LAB5 architects | Linda Erdélyi, András Dobos, Balázs Korényi, Virág Anna Gáspár | András Csémy, Benedek Kupi, Andrei Radulescu, Urnukh Darizav

Civil engineer: Terraplan | Balázs Puskás

 

01 | Manifesto

Since the dawn of human history we have always been having an effect on our environment. In the beginning mankind was living under the domination of the forces of basic elements, then started to overrule their planet. These days the balance of power is changing dramatically. Let this project be a Proactive Manifesto for Planet Earth.

Our proposal is not (only) a design but is made to attract attention that our familiar world is racing a utopia. We are facing not only the need for new scientific solutions - but mostly we need a new way of thinking of ourselves and a new understanding of our home.

...Read more

 

02 | Density

Just two thousands of years ago the human population was estimated less than 200 million, then one hundred years ago we were already 1 billion. Today we are reaching 8 billion, and we are expected to count 12 billion in 50 years. It all means there are going to be more people than what could fit our planet in a traditional way.

Since we are not planning to go back to a smaller crowd of 200 million - how are we going to share the planetary surface in the near future? And we are not even alone - we should also let plants and animals occupy their share of the planet.

The first thing to be solved in the next decade is the question of density. Not the density of the human population, but the zones left for nature whether untouched or artificial.

03 | The Skinniest Tower

Once skyscrapers were meant to be the luxury jewellery of cities or nations, where rich people could live above the crowd with a nice panorama. If we are aiming to place 12 billion people on a surface
made for 200 million - we have to try to fit them into the same area they used to be.

Skyscrapers of tomorrow are indispensable for this new density – to provide enough free space around us and for the rest of the inhabitants of the Earth. This is not an option, it is a necessity. These new towers have to be efficient and affordable. And they have to use the latest technologies to reduce the high share of pollution caused by real estate industry.

Our proposal is aiming for the skinniest possible tower.

04 | Layout

The tower of the future has to be freed from staircases and elevators to provide efficient floor plan. Sky-trains attached to the facade are running up and down between apartment-floors, and auto-drones and evacuation-capsules save the life of inhabitants in case of emergency.

The ideal size of one floor is the medium size of a nuclear family's apartment. In case of bigger needs more floors can be linked to each other by internal staircases.

This new solution creates a sort of village similar to the prototype of the traditional single-street village - but in a new, vertical dimension.

05 | Structure

Such a little floor size tower has a difficulty of structure. The weight of the building and the forces of the wind pressure would make a limitation of 300-400 meters height of our tower.

To distribute the load of the tower on the soil we attach them to each other by tentacles closer to the ground. We stretch the tower to stabilize its length by anti-gravity forced satellites of special
geosynchronous orbits where the tool is fixed above a fix point of the planet. Energy is gained from space by solar cells and solar wind mills.

To counterbalance the swinging of the thin volume in case of heavy storms and earthquakes we use dampers around each and every 50 floors.

06 | Public Utilities

This new density of population needs special solution of providing the basic resources. Electricity or fresh air is easily available in such height, and heating and cooling can be solved by smart shading.

The gold rush of the tomorrow will be the search of drinking water. We improve the use of a recently developed new technology that uses the moisture of the air. While the surface of the ground might be dry on the planet - there can be still a lot of vapour in the air during some time of the day. We collect the dew during the early morning, and we store it in the counterbalance dampers porous inside, using them as water tanks.

By placing the skyscrapers in convenient density we provide enough place to purify the waste water in containers populated by purifying bacteria.

07 | Space

The thin tower works like a single-street village, everyone has only 1-2 neighbours. To provide a semi-public area, the space under the tentacles is a community space. The branches joining the towers are
made available for traffic usage too, provided by routes for bicycles and electrical rollers. The level of the ground is kept as a artificial natural element - park to be visited for recreation and at the same time, to be serve as possible surface for agricultural function.

 

08 | Skin

The façade of the tower is built up like the skin, several layers of different functions. The main part is the loadbearing structure which consists of several intertwining spiral pillars. Their shape helps them working together as a stiffener structure on the one hand. And it leads the wind aroused around the volume in a safe way on the other hand.

The second skin is a water collecting mesh. It is a perforated sheet that lets the air across its surface but keeps the water drops from the air moisture then lets them dripping down into to the water collector tanks.

Elevators work as vertical sky-trains running up and down on the façade. Their tracks are a pair of spiralling rails and they have a station at each and every floor – providing flexibility for dividing all floors as separate apartments as might be needed. One of the track can be temporarily used up for maintenance purposes on the façade, or can be used by freight trains.

Evacuation capsules are shrunken and packed, attached to each floor. In case of smaller incidents habitants still can be saved by auto-drones. But in case of high risk emergency situations people can leave the tower at once by taking the self-driving capsules. They work like the winged seeds, dropping down slowly, and they are only using small engines for navigation. These capsules open up and deploy from their package by using the alarm, and they can save everyone from the floor.

 

09 | Colonization

These towers can be installed anywhere. From dense urban zones to unpopulated rocky see shores stand their feet.

Population of the dry deserts can grow in this new oasis in the sky, gaining water from the few clouds. Skyscrapers growing out above from the jungles leave most of the surface of the ground for the trees free, so they can be kept serving as the lung of the Earth.