What’s Even Huger Than Hugeass?
[ "Hydropolis," assembled in Germany, shipped to Dubai, will be the world's first underwater hotel. ]
Dubai. Yep, you’ve heard about it, but you best be taking a look at this astounding summary.
Alas, Dubai, apparently your 3400-foot Al Burj tower won’t be the tallest for very long. “Mile High Tower” is coming to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Say it with me now: WTF?! But even wiki says it’s true.
Hmm. A mile-high tower in the desert. Golly, is that sustainable?
[ Image: Skyscrapercity ]
“Golly, is that sustainable?”
Interesting question. I don’t think it’s as simple as it appears. Density is good – less cars needed, less sprawl, and it’s easy to integrate mass transportation. Air conditioning will be a real issue. I suppose it depends on what the alternative is – if people are moving here from temperate regions, then this is an overall environment killer. However, if the alternative is small spread-out offices (or in the case of condos single-family homes) in the same region – then this will save energy. You’d have less surface area and therefore less solar loads and conductive heat gain. You can have larger equipment (centrifugal chillers) – which is much more efficient than small equipment.
Sustainable? No. Not without at least something like solar power to run your air conditioning and lighting. More sustainable than the alternative? Probably.
I remember the great city of Babylon. It was devastated because of high dreams of the Babylonians. Now it’s happening again.
If it were to fall it would be like 9/11