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Rotating Solar-Powered Skyscraper
PieEye writes "Wired is pointing out a recent Gear Factor blog entry that highlights a new skyscraper in the works which will be solar-powered, and what's more will rotate with the sun. From the article: 'The completed tower will offer 200 expensive apartments for people who want to spend lots of money to screw up their circadian rhythm. Singh said they want to build many more such towers, with one for every time zone.'"
So now I can get home from work an hour early and can catch my neighbour's wife having an affair.
But seriously: How exactly is a rotating building meant to mess up one's circadian rhythm? Does the blogger think this building is rigged up to do a lap of the Earth each day? It's spinning on the spot!
Finally, why link to a crappy blog entry complete with typos and irrelevant BS, when you could link directly to the article?
How enlightening.
Give me an apartment in perpetual shadow. No more glare on the TV!
Rotating skyscapers, for the sake of capturing more sunlight, is so plebian and low-tech. The truly rich build skyscrapers that revolve around the earth, so they're constantly in sunlight.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
I am sure downtown Nome, Alaska would absolutely LOVE a 50 story skyscraper next to the General Store.
... who thinks that building is ugly as hell?
"Flee at once, all is discovered."
With any luck, the power generated by this scheme will almost offset the energy cost of the rotation...
Don't you hate that time of day when the sun is shining right into your apartment/living room, and putting glare on your monitor/tv? Isn't this going to be a problem for those apartments facing the sun (and turning along with it)?
... your SUV is using too much oil, stop driving.
The oil barons have obviously run out of ways to spend your money.
Good grief. And this isn't even a wild idea compared to what they have already built.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
I suspect that people working in this building day after day may find their sense of direction diminished in local surroundings. I once lived in a trailer that had to be moved. The 90 degree change in orientation grossly affected my navigation sense for months.
Letter To Iran
Building a rotating tower is neat and all - reminds me of those roundiround restaurants that seemed so cool in the 70s and 80s - but wouldn't all that effort be better spent on:
* Building a more energy efficient living complex that uses various technologies to reduce resource consumption,
* Building a real solar farm (the vertical walls of a tower aren't well suited to solar collection, especially in Dubai),
* Creating affordable living space without an "It's solar! Far out, man!" premium?
This will make them a little harder to hit at least. Maybe in the future these buildings will be able to dodge things
Doctors do Massage in Longview WA now, who knew?
I had like 50 of those in Sim City 2000, /yawn.
My script don't crash! She crashes, you crashed her!
frickin' rotating, solar-powered skyscraper, okay?
We'll make great pets
Whoever wrote the blurb, didn't bother to read the original article. This doesn't rotate to keep certain apartments in the sun, it rotates to allow all apartments to have the same view, albeit on different days.
For all the people who care about which way their heads, feet, et al face during sleep, will they now be in a spiritual predicament? In other words, will they also need to get rotating beds that would counteract the rotation of the building?
If they just rigged the building with light pipes, it wouldn't have to rotate to keep "facing" the Sun.
What an incredible waste of energy to rotate the building, in the name of solar power.
--
make install -not war
I have to stop and think how things such as TV, Telephone, power, water and sewer are 'plumbed' into each suite. That would have to be an interesting problem to solve.
Will renters expect to lose fat and develop a lovely golden tan?
Quoth the actual news article: "... rotating an 80,000 tonne tower through 360 degrees over a seven day period ..." How exactly does this translate to having apartments following the sun?
I hope it rotates only 180 degrees (or less) then rotates back. Rigging plumbing, sewage, power, cable, phone, etc for full 360 degree rotation will be tricky.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
I guess directional antennas will have to rotate in the opposite direction.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
fools and their money are quickly parted!
Seriously, that was my first thought. It's the most hideous building I've ever seen. Whoever designed the exterior needs to be crucified. I'm just glad to be living on a different content, with no intention of setting foot anywhere within eyeshot of that appalling monstrosity...
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
Dubai is at 25 degrees north. So for much of the year the sun will passing overhead, rather than 'around' the building. Wouldn't a rotating building make more sense at higher latitudes?
I have a really nice view every Tuesday.
Suite Vollard was the first rotating tower of the world, however it's not solar powered. Here's some facts (excerpts from the link):
- This building is the only one of its kind in the world, as each of the 11 apartments can rotate 360.- Each apartment can spin individually in any direction. One rotation takes a full hour.
- The facades are composed of double sheets of glass, in different colors (blue, gold, and silver) on different floors. This gives a spectacular effect as the floors turn in different directions.
- The apartment rings rotate around a static core used for building services, utilities, and all areas which require plumbing.
- Suite Vollard was a case study for more than 30 companies in Brazil and one from Germany.
- Each apartment was sold for approximately R$ 400,000.00 ($US 300,000.00).
- The first two floors of the building are an Executive Center.
If you can read this, thank an english teacher.
I could see devout Muslims having difficulty orienting themselves correctly at prayer time, particularly given that the times change each day, so it's not in a constant direction relative to your apartment at each appointed period.
I think the important question is, will they turn in the oppisite direction on either side of the earth ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
I can't imagine how it could possibly be cheaper to put less solar panels on a skyscraper and make it rotate than to just coat the entire outside with more solar panels. It takes A LOT of power to rotate a building...in fact, I bet it'd take all the energy collected from the solar panels all day to rotate it. Ugh, some engineers are so stupid it's just scary.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Don't you hate that time of day when the sun is shining right into your apartment/living room, and putting glare on your monitor/tv? Isn't this going to be a problem for those apartments facing the sun (and turning along with it)?
Just put the TV and computer in the back room. It'll permanently be in shade.
Singh said they want to build many more such towers, with one for every time zone.
So why not just say they plan on building 24 more towers, instead of "many more"?
. . .a giggle out of a 50 foot skyscraper . . .
Come to think of it, I'd get a bit of a giggle out of a 50 foot "skyscraper" myself.
Although, perhaps in Nome that would be.
This is my brain on gluten. It is not a pretty sight; although it can be amusing.
KFG
Since it will take a full week for a complete revolution, that means that a given view indicates both the day of week AND the time of day. Think of enjoying the view at your neighbor's home and getting all confused as to what day/time it is. :O
This will make for an interesting exercise in real estate law. Said apartment, starting at the central elevator shaft on the 50th floor and heading 100 feet due east, no, wait. That's east-north-east. Man, this is going to take FOREVER! But seriously, has anyone seen a property deed for something like this?
electic
eclectic
electric
(insert witty comment here about tea parties and electic electric kettle selection. :^)
Note to other posters: I have heard of rotating restaurants and/or observation decks - this is not an utterly new concept. So, getting the utilities (water, sewer, electric, etc.) to the residents is a matter of scaling past solutions.
Lastly: I admire their interest in getting something as immense as a WHOLE SKYSCRAPER to rotate, continuously, for years on end. I just hope they'll be able to get their hands on a good supply of lubricant. <grin>
Working at the UofT they have a research department (administrative not scientific) which contains about 60-80 people, they have no windows of any kind, not even any windows to other rooms which have windows.
It's the most horrible place I ever worked... imagine clocks on EVERY single wall and flat surface ever desk, every screen... And you still lose time, you think hours have passed and minutes have you think minutes passed and hours have.
Everyone seems sleepy all the time. Horrible.
Maybe they can put web cafe's on that side of the building?
They actually make prayer-rugs that have compasses (with Mecca marked) on them.
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Or maybe they use roller bearings?
I would hate the brief moments of panic that occurred when I walked out of my door and thought my car was towed/stolen because it was no longer in the direction I thought it would be.
In 1927? The original Dymaxion 4D tower was designed to be a 200 story rotating apartment tower, if memory serves. Geez, they're only 80 years behind the times.
How would this screw up circadian rythms, since no matter where you are facing, there is always a day and night time? Unless you are in space, or on a point where you can always see the sun, there will always be a night and day, with the obvious exceptions of the poles. For a tower to affect circadian rythms to a point where they are minimally affected, for any region relative to the normal day/night scheduled for that particular region, it would have to be EXTREMELY tall, and thus, EXTREMELY massive. .....just a thought.....
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
This is the second rotating tower in Dubai. The first one has a 5 story stack of rotating penthouses, which rotate independently. At the top is a single "villa", which also rotates. It also has a car lift and three parking spaces.
Dubai is having an insane skyscraper boom. 205 high rise buildings completed, 333 under construction. (Los Angeles: 465 completed, 11 under construction.) Not because of space constraints. There's plenty of open desert nearby. It's ego, enthusiasm, and money.
I for one welcome our dizzy landlords
Table-ized A.I.
Isn't it kind of hard to do that when Mecca isn't a magnetic pole? It could be one way or another depending on where you are... I guess they would have to have asian and westen ones...
Great Intellect...
Apart from the comments on "glare" upstairs, anyone notice the CRT monitors picture will actually shift with changing orientations? Ever had that annoy the hell out of you when there's one corner on the CRT you can never get it perfectly aligned? Try rotating it 90 degrees. Ever listen to the radio? Noticed that sometimes there's better reception if you move around in the house? What about cell phones? Despair no more! We've invented this rotating residential so instead of you moving to get better reception, everyone gets better reception once every rotation! It's all fair! Come live in this fair place. The Sinusoid of Pleasure(TM)
i'd be seriously interested in knowing what sort of motors would power that.
Hmmm, looks like there's a market for prayer rugs with built in GPS. Who'd have thought that?
Or perhaps it simply wouldn't be suited for them. But I'm sure if there was a good reason to use this there are good solutions we could come up with.
Quack, quack.
Yes, because a compas would never be able to find out the correct direction.
Has anybody noticed how the top part of the rotating building:
_ tower_4.jpg
a ges/mordor-sideimage.jpg
http://archive.gulfnews.com/images/06/11/29/30_bs
has the same shape as the top part of Sauron's tower, Barad-dur?
http://uk.games-workshop.com/mordor/mordorhome/im
Something fishy's going on here...
At a *USUAL* 1600 a pound??? (I've dealt, shaddup,) that's for regular stuff. Most fresh stuff is easily confused for "dro" or "dank" because it's fresher and tastes (to them) better. your 1600 is in reality my 3-4 G's a P. My answer is *HELL YES,* not just yes, even though you said "lowball estimate." I'd have to ask if you really knew what a lowball estimate was in the drug game (try $500 a pound, pal,) Two pounds to maybe three will net you a cool (if homegrown, considering energy costs, nutritional costs, and time spent) an easy $2,000 a pound if you sell it right, PER WEEK. (this assumes a Sea of Green operation, assuming as well awesome strains like big bud.) That's (assume best situation, 3 p's sold per week @ 2,000,) six grand a week, 24 grand a month, over a quarter million per year.
Your answer, without any apparent personal experience, is somewhat laughable. Most real dealers get far more than 1,600 per pound. No offense, but you're definitely not "in da game."
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I don't know about the Circadian Rythm but I know it would really screw up my Feng Shui.. Unless the rooms counter-rotated...
Why not just make it spin like really fast like gravatron style at the carnivals at set points in the week. Give a little excitement to all those people. And that folks is the reason i shouldnt be left incharge of the speed control of this building.
Tuesday? Wouldn't it then be more accurate to say you have a Nice Vista? :-P
(Ok everyone, you may slap me now...)
I hope the people of Dubai enjoy the outlandish riches that the geographic lottery and the world's insatiable reliance on fossil fuels has given them.
.7% arable land, I hope they're putting up some canned goods because even with butter on it sand tastes like shit.
Eventually (sooner, I hope), things will change, we will shift from an world oil economy, and the people of Dubai will have to go back to working for a living. And with only
Before oil was discovered in Dubai about what, 35 years ago?, they were herding camels and trading rugs. The rusted hulks of Bentleys and Rolls are going to look funny sitting up on blocks in front of tents.
But at least they're smart enough to realize solar energy is the way to spin their skyscraper.
You are welcome on my lawn.
There are about 39 time zones instead of 24 (as popularly believed). This is due to fractional hour offsets and zones with offsets larger than 12 hours near the International Date Line. Some micronations may use offsets that are not recognized by all authorities.
(That's from the wikipedia on timezones)
Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
Maybe their sky wizard will give them special dispensation.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
For example, the Federal Reserve is made up of a bunch of private banks. These banks create money out of nothing and loan it to the US government at currently 5.25% interest rate. The government spends the money and then taxes the people to eventually pay it back. The US citizens are taxed to pay money to a bunch of private banks interest on money which they created out of nothing. Essentially the whole of the US population is working for the member (privately owned) banks of the Federal Reserve.
Guess who owns the private banks which own the Federal Reserve?
Deleted
There is a rotating tower in Glasgow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Tower. From day one it had problems with the bearings (not surprisingly), how is this building any different?
That will be interesting when the first rotation tears out the telephone and cable tv wiring. :)
Yeah, I'm so there.
Dude: *groan*, I got a serious hangover, what day is it ?
Other Dude: uhhhhhhh, *peeks out window* it's Waffle House day.
Dude: Fuck, it's Sunday already ?!
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Come on, silly!
Everybody knows that rich people aren't devoutly religious!
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
Dude, this line of reasoning comes straight from militia freaks in Oregon who want to steal your money. I had a friend in Hawaii who was scammed by these guys. I tried to tell him that it was all bullshit, even showing him books about the Fed that contradicted what these asshole scammers said, but of course that was all just propaganda. Poor guy lost thousands to the scammers and thousands more to the IRS.
f edinbrief/index.html
If you want to believe this crap, go ahead, I won't try to talk you out of it. But here's some links so you can find out more for yourself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_reserve_bank
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/federalreserve/
http://money.howstuffworks.com/fed.htm
And to provide some balance, here's more from the scammers themselves (please take with a HUGE grain of salt):
http://www.fdrs.org/banking_history.html
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
You're absolutely right.
Obviously, this project must be stopped NOW before it offends our Muslim friends.
Will we NEVER learn? Or will we continue in our culturally insensitive ways until it is the death of us?
Oh, thanks Cooper, that's so helpful. Nothing gets across a rate of rotational velocity like milimeters per second!!! And "electric kettles"??? WTF, that's not even a unit, you arse!!!
BTW, the "points" you're looking for "in the tower"... for placing your bearing systems... to allow the base of the tower to rotate... those would be directly under the base of the tower. You didn't seem too clear on this point, and it's a rather crucial detail.
Well, since the building is a functional timepiece, you could have a seperate prayer rug for each prayer time, and then arrange them so that each rug was correctly oriented for its time. But, I think (I could be wrong), that most Gulf-state muslims go to a mosque to pray.
The land shall stone them with the bread of his son.
Isn't it kind of hard to do that when Mecca isn't a magnetic pole?
[sigh] The building rotates; it doesn't move. Therefore, if you know which way North is, finding the direction to Mecca is a trivial exercise. (It's slightly south of due West.) Or you could get one of these.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
Ignorance can be depressing, especially when five minutes on Wikipedia's article on the Federal Reserve has the potential to change your entire worldview.
The Fed isn't just a bunch of private banks scamming the government. It's composed of:
Bank's don't "create money from nothing." The way it usually works is simple:
Providing funds to people who need it (small businesses, governments that like deficit spending) is a legitimate service. In the meantime, they pay their depositors (you with the savings account) interest for use of their money. People who need money get loans, and the savings account guy gets something for nothing. Win-win.
DATABASE WOW WOW
Unless the building is one appartment thick, I feel for the poor saps on the dark side...No sun ever.
But out of curiosity I read: "Dubai is unusual in that its population is comprised mainly of expatriates". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai#Demographics Interesting.
Quack, quack.
It rotates a little bit all the time, giving everyone a changing view. The solar powered bit is on the ROOF, not the side.
2) The amount of power needed to rotate the building, assuming it is round, is fairly low. You are just paying for the friction, which unless you are a fool, is almost all on the ground floor, where it meets the non-rotating base. There is no 'core' that does not rotate, - that would just create more problems, starting with increased friction.
3) New York City (and many other major cities) has several buildings with a rotating top floor that does this already. They usually contain restaurants, complete with full water and electricity.
4) Electrical hookups are simple. They work fine on a brush contact, again only on the BOTTOM floor.
5) Sewer hookups are also simple. In the bottom floor, there is a large pipe. Beneath the pipe is a gigantic inverse ring, that funnels to a pipe. It does not matter that most of the time the inverse ring is open, stuff falls down into it.
6) The only problem is the water intake, to get water to the building. This can most easily be done in the center of the building, with a pipe connection that is water tight, but low friction seal, allowing rotation. The problem factor is keeping friction down, not the water tight + allowing rotation.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibla
Wouldn't it cost less to just put solar cells on the East, South, and West faces of the building, rather than rotate the entire building?
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
I read this head line and I thought this building has to be in Dubai and sure enough...
I've spent quite a lot of time there in the past couple of years. This project doesn't really surprise me at all.
It fits right in along side their project to build a business park filled with water that has more canals than Venice and Amsterdam put together, which coincidentally will contain the tallest building in the world the burj tower until they build the next tower to eclipse it that will be one kilometer tall. It also fits right along side a single hotel complex in the middle of the desert with 25,000 hotel rooms, more than all of Los Vegas put together, or their in-door ski park, or their three palm projects and the world artificial island projects and the list goes on and on...
I guarentee you that this building will not rotate entirely (or probably at all) off energy collected in solar cells. The energy required to rotate a skyscraper would be enourmous, I would think you'd be lucky to rotate a building once a decade off the energy collected through solar cells mounted on it.
It's just a gimmick.
In the UAE there are two main industries, property development and oil (in that order). This is just a gimmick to try and draw attention and investor dollars, there are so many mind bogglingly crazy projects in Dubai it really takes quite an effort to come up with something that stands out. By Dubai standards this is quite a moderate effort.
...an SR-71 ("Blackbird") can do that quite easily. In fact I think their trans-atlantic flight record was well under half the time you'd need.
Unfortunately, running your building on Jet8 fuel and streamlining it enough could be a bit frustrating.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
first against the wall when the revolution comes
for great justice
This is an neat idea. It'll be interesting to see if it ever gets off the ground.
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