A home out of this world

New York-based architecture firm proposes a design for the ‘tallest ever’ skyscraper, literally hanging by a thread from an asteroid orbiting the earth — though not everyone is convinced

IMAGINE LIVING in a skyscraper so high that it is not unusual for an aircraft to fly past the residential floors. Down below, the earth is a parachute drop away. Up above, the top of the skyscraper is suspended from a cable that connects to an asteroid, whose orbit around the earth keeps the structure in unceasing pendulum oscillations.

Called Analemma Tower, the “world's tallest building ever” — although it's actually out of the world — is not happening anytime soon, and the idea has been greeted with incredulity by many who have reported or commented on it. Even the designers have declared it “speculative”. New York-based Clouds Architecture Office, whose earlier work includes collaborating with NASA for the design of a proposed Mars Ice House, unveiled the proposal for the skyscraper last week.

The idea presumes that an asteroid can be manipulated some day to orbit the earth. This is no longer relegated to science fiction, Clouds AO insists, citing a robotic mission announced by NASA to redirect an asteroid into orbit around the moon.

Finding a material so strong is another potential hurdle. Reporting on the proposal, NBC News quotes Carlo Ratti, director of MIT'S Senseable City Lab, as saying a cable suspended from space would break under its own weight. News organisation Christian Science Monitor quotes Jonathan Mcdowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, as pointing out the possibility of the cable being hit and snapped by space trash from defunct satellites. An Indian space scientist, who asked not to be named, told The Indian Express the whole idea is “imaginary”.

Clouds AO, which provided images and details of the concept, was yet to respond to questions about the cable when this report was being written.

The motion of the cable and the suspended building, on the other hand, is well accounted for. With the asteroid put into geosynchronous orbit, the structure itself would hover over a relatively small area of the earth’s surface. The pendulum oscillations would chart out a figure-8, so that the tower would return to the same spot in the sky at any given time each day. Clouds AO Asteroid placed in GSO orbit to pass over NYC NYC cost: $400 - $600 per sqft proposes that the orbit be so calibrated that the slowest part of the trajectory occurs over New York City.

In astronomy, incidentally, an analemma is a diagram showing the deviation of the sun from its mean motion in the sky, as viewed from a fixed location on the earth. Plotted over a year, the diagram takes the shape of a figure-8.

But how is the building sent into space in the first place? The idea is that prefabricated parts are built on earth and transported, to be suspended from the asteroid 50,000 km away. “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 AO suggests. “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 residents would be well provided for. Analemma would get its power from space-based solar panels, Clouds AO says; installed above the dense, diffuse atmosphere, these would have constant exposure to sunlight. “Water,” it adds, “would be filtered and recycled in a semi-closed loop system, replenished with condensate captured from clouds and rainwater.”

Sections of the tower are designated for various activities. Business is to be conducted at the lower end of the tower, with sleeping quarters approximately twothirds of the way up. Devotional activities would be scattered along the highest reaches, while dining and shopping would be for the lower reaches. The size and shape of windows change with height to account for pressure and temperature differentials.

The amount of daylight increases by 40 minutes at the top of the tower due to the curvature of the earth, Clouds AO says, but also notes that there is probably a tangible height limit beyond which people would not tolerate living due to the extreme conditions.

The designers are optimistic that the idea is commercially feasible. “If the recent boom in residential towers proves that sales price per square foot rises with floor elevation,” it says, “then Analemma Tower will command record prices, justifying its high cost of construction.”