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.'"

Comments

Great

[afaik_ianal]

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?

Re:Energy cost?

[afaik_ianal]

That's the point. It is meant to rotate on the energy it captures. It's not meant to be a particularly "green" solution - they're just trying not to be completely anti-green.

FTFA:

Project engineers say the Dh400 million Time Residences tower in the City of Arabia master development will turn through 360 degrees, its rotation mechanism driven by stored solar energy.

Re:for cheapskates only

[Duhavid]

Thats called a satellite.

It actually rotates 360 deg over 7 days

[MushMouth]

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.

Re:It actually rotates 360 deg over 7 days

[Nutty_Irishman]

On the other hand, that would make it a lot tougher for "observers to use the building as a fully functioning time piece" using those "12 o'clock markings on the ground and the podium." The blurb and the original article are a bit spotty, unfortunately. One quote suggests the tower will move at 5mm/second, which means it almost certainly turns 360 degrees per day, just like a 24-hour timepiece's hour hand. (Although I suppose it could turn twice per day...) I had to go digging to find out what is correct. The 5mm per second makes sense on a per day basis(140x140 meter footprint vs. 1000x1000 meter footprint), but this article seems to suggest a per week basis: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1773 432006

Twenty small electric engines will turn the building a few degrees each hour. Which would be on a week basis. They also mention specifically that it will be on a week basis in this article as well (something that was said in the previous article). Perhaps the engineer (who was quoted for both the 5mm per second and few degrees each hour), should go back and recheck his calculations...

Re:wait a sec...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you read the article, you'll find it completes a rotation in a week, not a single day. As such, the building does not track the sun, and no part of it will be in this situation.

Following the Sun?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Where the Sun Don't Shine

[dangitman]

If they just rigged the building with light pipes, it wouldn't have to rotate to keep "facing" the Sun.

That wouldn't solve the problem of people wanting to have access to the "best view" out of their window.

What an incredible waste of energy to rotate the building, in the name of solar power.

It's not being done in the name of solar power. It's being done in the name of property values, and having a trendy apartment with good views.

Suite Vollard - completed in 2001

[rednaxel]

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.

Re:Perpetual Shadow

[Surt]

http://www.californiareport.org/domains/california report/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2003482836_marijuana18.html

Yes.

With a lowball estimate of $1600/pound, presumably you'd need only grow something like 5 pounds per month to cover your rent and utilities and whatnot.

The problem of course, is that if the windows are see-through for maximum sunlight, you have issues with the police/neighbors being able to notice.

Where to start?

[martyb]

From: original article

Dubai's Kulkarni QS will manage the project, while the task of rotating an 80,000 tonne tower through 360 degrees over a seven day period has been handed to Nick Cooper, managing director of Bennett Associates, the British engineer who designed the drill machine that bored the English Channel Tunnel.

Cooper said state of the art bearing systems at several points in the tower will allow a power plant to rotate the base of the tower at 5mm per second using only 21 electic kettles' worth of solar power.

1. 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

2. 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?

3. "only 21 electic kettles"
   electic
   eclectic
   electric

   (insert witty comment here about tea parties and electic electric kettle selection. :^)

4. 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.

5. 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>

The world *does* revolve round the rich.

[Colin Smith]

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?

Some people have some wierd ideas about this

[gurps_npc]

1) The building does NOT keep one side at the sun all the time.

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.

Re:Some people have some wierd ideas about this

[2short]

Well, again, the one existing "whole building" rotator I've heard about actually had an outside theat rotated around a non-rotating core. Each floor was a single apartment whose kitchen, bathroom, and access to the elevator/stairs were in the non-rotating middle. Do you know of a building where the whole thing actually roatates, or are you speculating?
I'm just curious; not trying to run down speculating. My own speculation is that a sufficiently reliable rotating water hookup is harder than you think. Friction, of course, is a matter of not just surface area, but the force (weight) between those surfaces. I expect higher-than-bottom-level connections would either make little difference, or actually help.

Re:Too much money

[smithmc]

  Before oil was discovered in Dubai about what, 35 years ago?, they were herding camels and trading rugs.

Dubai is not an oil-rich place; only 6% of its GDP comes from oil. Dubai is rich because of the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone.