A Room With a View

Daily Mail:

A New York architecture firm has unveiled designs for a skyscraper that is out of this world.

Deemed the ‘world’s tallest building ever’, Analemma Tower will be suspended from an orbiting asteroid 31,068 miles (50,000 km) above the Earth– and the only way to leave is by parachute.

The orbital path would swing the tower in a figure eight pattern between the northern and southern hemispheres each day, taking residents on a tour through different parts of the world – all in just a 24 hour orbital cycle. …

The design will use a system called the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS), which attaches a high strength cable to an asteroid that is lowered to Earth and then attached to the tower.

‘Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location,’ Clouds Architecture Office shared on its website.

‘The proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one fifth the cost of New York City construction.’ …

The massive skyscraper will be setup in sections and each with a designated purpose.

Business will be conducted at the lower end of the towers and sleeping quarters will be positioned two-thirds of the way up the building.

Residents will also have access to a gardening area, a place for worship and in the bottom level will be sections for dining, shopping and entertainment.

The architects plan to take full advantage of the skyscraper’s location and will place solar panels at the upper most levels to generate power from the sun.

And residents will enjoy fresh water from condensation of clouds and rainwater, which will be collected and purified. …

The tower would travel on a figure eight path over certain major cities in the northern and southern hemispheres – this includes New York City, Havana, Atlanta and Panama City.

And the amount of daylight increases by 40 minutes at the top of the tower due to the curvature of the Earth.

‘Analemma can be placed in an eccentric geosynchronous orbit which would allow it to travel between the northern and southern hemispheres on a daily loop,’ Clouds Architecture Office explained.

‘The ground trace for this pendulum tower would be a figure eight, where the tower would move at its slowest speed at the top and bottom of the figure eight allowing the possibility for the towers occupants to interface with the planet’s surface at these points.’

‘The proposed orbit is calibrated so the slowest part of the towers trajectory occurs over New York City.’

while researching atmospheric conditions for the project, the team discovered that there is most likely a height that people could not tolerate due to the extreme conditions.

‘For example, while there may be a benefit to having 45 extra minutes of daylight at an elevation of 32,000 meters, the near vacuum and -40C temperature would prevent people from going outside without a protective suit,’ shared Clouds Architecture Office.

‘Then again, astronauts have continually occupied the space station for decades, so perhaps it’s not so bad?’

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