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Rotating Solar-Powered Skyscraper

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the backside-apartments-that-never-have-glare dept.

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.'"

11 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. Sense of Direction More Likely to be Affected by DumbSwede · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:Sense of Direction More Likely to be Affected by SinGunner · · Score: 2, Interesting

      i once noted that changing the direction i sleep in bed caused a bit of trouble with my sense of direction. since then, i've changed about once a month and i no longer have any problems. i think the problem is that we get too used to everything being the same all the time. it's not like it's built in to you have to always sleep in the same place/direction every night of your life.

  2. Re:One for every timezone, eh? by Torvaun · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, but just think. It wouldn't need to rotate. And for a more serious question, do the solar panels actually provide enough power to do this, or are they just going for the gimmick?

    --
    I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
  3. What about the beds? by dino213b · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:What about the beds? by Dunbal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      their "aim" at Mecca cannot be more seriously affected than the inherent inaccuracy of pointing precisely toward Mecca usually.

            Hmm, that brings to mind the following question - what is the acceptable error when aiming prayers at Mecca? +/- 2 degrees? 5 degrees? 10? And what happens if the "aim" is off? The prayers work? Or fail to work? Or the praying party instantly has a spot reserved in Hell? Is the effectiveness of the prayer or punishment directly proportional to the degree of error? Will praying 180 degrees away from Mecca cause the opposite of the prayer to happen? I propose some research to attempt to quantify this matter once and for all. In order not to single out the Muslim faith, I'd also like to look into the exact amount of "Hail Mary's" required to achieve a given result ;)

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  4. Services? by redphive · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:Interstructure by blincoln · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rigging plumbing, sewage, power, cable, phone, etc for full 360 degree rotation will be tricky.

    Anything electrical is easy. Just use a bunch of ring-shaped conductors around the axis of rotation.

    I imagine liquid wouldn't be *that* much harder. Have the input water come in at the top of the building and the sewage come out the bottom, with one big pipe connector on each end that runs through the axis of rotation. Because the water is only going one way (down), you don't need a perfect seal, just that the bottom connector be wider than the top one.

    --
    "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
  6. It's 2:37 PM. Which way is Mecca? by santiago · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  7. Re:It's 2:37 PM. Which way is Mecca? by twoes00 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    They actually make prayer-rugs that have compasses (with Mecca marked) on them.

  8. Didn't Buckminster Fuller already design that by GeorgeVW · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  9. 39 timezones by splutty · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.