From: Bill Douglass (douglassbill@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jun 16 2001 - 12:55:16 MDT
This will be the most incredible man-made structure on earth if it actually
gets built, IMO. For anyone who enjoys the article, I recommend that you
follow the link to the original and see the exciting graphics and additional
information.
The article doesn't specify, but I'm certain the Bionic Tower would be
located in the newly-developing area of Pudong, across the Huangpu River
from old Shanghai. I was over there today; to some degree Pudong already
feels like a city of the future: everything is new and modern.
It's already home to the world's sixth-tallest building, the Jin Mao (after
the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur at first and second, the Sears Tower in
Chicago at third, and the World Trade Center in Manhattan at fourth and
fifth). The Jin Mao has the world's highest hotel -- the lobby starts at
the 58th floor!
The author starts out, "unlike the great wall, it would not be seen from
space." But the Chinese have that in hand, as well -- when the Three Gorges
dam is completed, it too should be visible from space.
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/02/25/stifgnfar02001.html
February 25 2001 FAR EAST
Shanghai plans a skyscraper for 100,000
John Follain
UNLIKE the Great Wall, it would not be seen from space. But a 3,700ft Bionic
Tower that China's leaders are considering building may come to rival the
wall as a feat of human engineering and symbol of national might.
Officials in the teeming port city of Shanghai are discussing plans to
tackle urban overcrowding by creating a 300-storey home for 100,000 people.
Its European designers describe it as a "vertical city".
The concrete, metal and glass tower, costing about £10 billion, would be
140ft higher than Mount Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales, and would
contain hotels, offices, cinemas and hospitals.
Dwarfing Kuala Lumpur's twin Petronas Towers, the world's tallest buildings
at 1,483ft high, it would be set in a gigantic, wheel-shaped base
incorporating shopping malls and car parks.
The Spanish architects envisage 368 lifts, with the journey from bottom to
top taking less than two minutes. Water and energy would be transported
along 92 vertical columns.
"Of course, we'd all like to live in a house on the beach, but Shanghai's
population is expected to reach 30m over the next four to five decades,"
said Professor Javier Pioz, the head of the team that designed the Bionic
Tower. "We need a new way of conquering vertical space."
Pioz has created a root-like system of foundations that would descend 656ft,
surrounded by an artificial lake to absorb vibrations caused by any earth
tremors. The top of the tower is predicted to oscillate by a maximum of
nearly 8ft, as much as the Empire State Building in New York but so slowly
that it would not be perceptible to inhabitants.
People would be banned from opening the windows of their apartments, but
could breathe fresh air on concourses thanks to openings in the outer glass
and aluminium shell.
They would live on 12 levels and although some people would move in as soon
as the first level was completed it would be 15 years before the building
work above them finally stopped.
The designers have met Xu Kuangdi, the mayor of Shanghai, and urban
planners, who have indicated a willingness to proceed and have set up a
group to consider possible sites and how to meet the cost from both private
and public funds.
Marco Goldschmied, the president of the Royal Institute of British
Architects, said the project could herald a much-needed new way of thinking
about urban sprawl in China, which is already building the equivalent of 600
cities the size of Bristol. In Shanghai alone 10 new districts are expected
to be built over the next five years, each big enough to house 100,000
people.
"If you can send a man to the moon you can certainly build a tower for
100,000 people," said Goldschmied. He hoped the project would form a
blueprint for future developments that would help preserve the environment.
However, he added a warning: "The main pitfall is the towering inferno
scenario - what happens if fire breaks out? It could be the ultimate
disaster. Imagine 100,000 people suffocating. And you'd have to organise the
place pretty well to stop people feeling like rats in a cage."
Pioz says the risk of fire has been taken into account, with sealed
compartments built in to act like fire doors. People escaping from a fire on
one level would need to flee only 40 yards away, upwards or downwards, to
the closest safe area, he said.
"When the Eiffel Tower was built, many people said it was too dangerous -
they wanted to kill Mr Eiffel. But it's still standing."
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd
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