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Earthscraper Takes Sustainable Design Underground
Hugh Pickens writes"The 'Earthscraper,' a 65-story, 82,000-square-foot inverted pyramid beneath Mexico City takes a new approach to escalating megacity problems like population growth, urban sprawl, preserving open space, and conserving energy and water, promising to turn the modern high-rise, quite literally, on its head. The proposed building will be located at the Zocalo, Mexico City's major public plaza one of the few sizable open spaces left in the city of 9 million. 'It's a massive empty plot, which makes it the ideal site for our program,' says architect Esteban Suarez. The Earthscraper concept begins with a glass roof replacing the opaque stone surface of the Zocalo preserving the open space and civic uses of the Zocalo, while allowing natural lighting to flow downward into all floors of the tapering structure through clear or translucent core walls. The first 10 stories would hold a museum dedicated to the city's history and its artifacts. 'We'd almost certainly find plenty of interesting relics during the dig — dating right back to the Aztecs who built their own pyramids here,' says Suarez adding that the design incorporates a system of gardens occurring roughly every 10 stories, to help generate fresh air. One thing working in Earthscraper's favor is there are strict laws that prevent building upwards in this part of Mexico City, but no laws for building down. 'They will have to develop new laws to stop this from happening,' says Chief Design Officer Emilio Barja. 'I hope they don't [find the] time to do that.'"
While inverted pyramids are an interesting design, what're you gonna do with the million cubic feet of dirt from the hole you have to dig to build the damn thing?
I just hope we don't find any angels while we dig up for those :p
One of the things I hate about my current job is that there are no windows anywhere near where I am seated.
I frequently go weeks in winter without seeing sunlight because it is dark when I get to work and dark when I leave.
I find windowless offices to be very dreary and depressing. Only the economy keeps me in this dreary place.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The problem I see is that walking down stairs is pretty easy and most people can manage a number of floors without a problem. Walking up stairs is a different situation. Many people cannot walk up one or two levels, let alone the number of levels proposed. I think you would need tunnels from several levels going in several directions to escape platforms or safe rooms with elevator or crane access.
So -- how do they plan emergency evacuation of this thing if the pumps fail? Maybe during an earthquake? (Not like Mexico City has those, mind.)
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Running down 65 floors is a pain in the arse. Running UP 65 floors to the surface is a whole other story!
There'll be people hoping a sewage line breaks before they have a heart attack running up stairs.
Stories like these come along every few years about underground building. And everyone says, "Gee, that's a good idea. Why aren't we doing that already?"
Then you tell them about fires, cave ins, flooding, etc. and that good idea doesn't look so hot anymore. Christ, has nobody watched Resident Evil? You don't need monsters, you just need to lose power, lights, and air ventilation and you'll be have a nice uphill riot on your hands. Those glass walls probably don't work to well on a cloudy day or night down near the bottom.
Let's just go ahead and name this the Umbrella Corporation building.
I8-D