Now with Beer Garden for our smoking patrons.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8445Architects plan kilometre-high skyscraper
* 17:48 09 December 2005
* NewScientist.com news service
* Will Knight
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Blueprints for a kilometre-tall skyscraper have been drawn up by UK architects, who hope to see the record-breaking structure commissioned in Kuwait.
At 1001 metres, the enormous tower would be almost twice the height of the world's tallest building today, the Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which stands at 509 metres. The new building would also dwarf the Burj Dubai, a building under construction in Dubai that is expected to stand 700-800 metres tall once completed in 2008.
Architecture firm Eric Kuhne and Associates, based in London, UK, has drawn up plans for the skyscraper. Although the designs have yet to be made public, the company is reported to be in talks with the Kuwaiti government about construction.
Representatives told the Architects' Journal that the Kuwaiti government is considering commissioning the building for a city called Madinat al-Hareer, or the "City of Silk". The skyscraper could house 7000 people, but would cost an estimated £84bn to construct and could take 25 years to complete.
Triple-decker elevators
Mohsen Zikri, a skyscraper expert with the UK engineering company Arup, says such an immensely tall building would pose extraordinary challenges for its designers. For example, it could be tricky to include enough elevators (lifts) to move people up and down efficiently.
"As a building gets taller you need more lifts, but that can consume more of the core of the building," Zikri told New Scientist. The solution, he says, could be to use double-decker, or even triple-decker lifts instead of conventional ones.
Another issue, according to Zikri, would be ensuring that the movement caused by wind at the top of the building is controlled. In some skyscrapers this is managed by incorporating a pendulum-like counterweight at the top of the structure, which dampens any lateral motion.
The design of such a tall building would also have to prevent wind whirling around it, as this could produce powerful vortexes on the ground. Finally, Zikri notes that construction work would pose a massive logistical challenge.
love to see renders of this
