Saudi Prince To Build 120 km Wide Skyscraper And Taller Than ESB

[Double L]

As we enter an era where we might be relying more and more on remote work, we will need to experiment with these urban planning concepts. That is what the concept is here. Everybody living walking distance from all their services while being connected by high speed rail. Urban planners should experiment with these or similar concepts sometime soon.

[DetroitSky]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Does this building get credit for that height if the wind blows 30 meters of sand up against it, like how sand is deliberately deposited at jetties?

Exactly what I was thinking. And wouldn't the sand destroy the glass over time too? They'd have to replace the entire facade say every 50-100 years due to the constant abrasion.

[The North One]

It's obviously pure fantasy, stunt queen bullshit. The Saudi's are desperate for attention that doesn't involve their human rights crimes and brutal journalist assassinations.

[BnaBreaker]

What a colossal waste of money and resources.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by Double L

Everybody living walking distance from all their services while being connected by high speed rail.

Isn't that just a city?

[JManc]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

Like Frank Lloyd Wright's mile high skyscraper proposal, will never be built. These proposals are floated for publicity.

Exactly. It's an arcology like numerous others envisioned over the years and you'd think more here would grasp that.

30 years ago, no one actually though this was a reality.

[SIGSEGV]

So at 200 m x 488 m x 120 km, that's nearly 12 km^3. If it were full of water, it would be the 25th most voluminous lake in the US, just after Yellowstone Lake and bigger than Lake Franklin D. Roosevelt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ates_by_volume)

[Double L]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Isn't that just a city?

There is a city where everybody is living in one building, guaranteed all services in walking distance with all locations connected by public transportation?

[montréaliste]

There’s something poetic about it, in a dumb, uninspired kind of way.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by DetroitSky

Exactly what I was thinking. And wouldn't the sand destroy the glass over time too? They'd have to replace the entire facade say every 50-100 years due to the constant abrasion.

The mirrored face isn't necessarily glass, it could be a polished metal panel or a shiny foil applied to concrete. As I understand the concept, the outer faces are windowless and bounce solar energy off the building so it remains cooler inside, especially at the lower levels. Your apartment would only have windows facing the slot canyon.

But yeah, desert conditions are an issue for everything they build, and reflective surfaces are very rare in nature which means they are hard to sustain over the long term.

More than the design, my concern is the projected cost of only $1T which basically guarantees the use of slave labor to build this, just like all the highrises in Dubai.

[llamaorama]

This makes me think about how an partially underground city might work. Saudi Arabia would be an ideal location for various reasons.

Imagine a city of 2-3 story buildings at a density similar to South Philly. So you could get 500,000 in a few square miles and a metro system would be viable. Just blocks and blocks of 2-3 story buildings on a grid. Now put all those buildings underground where the lowest floor is 25-40 feet below grade. Or perhaps, raise the ground around them.

Solar tubes would be used to illuminate the inside. Being a bunker would require less energy to cool them, they could be a comfortable 70 F all the time even if it was 120 F outside. Above the ground the roof would be private "yards" for each dwelling and a stairwell/elevator shaft for access to the roads. The rest of the space would be taken up with solar panels.

For every so many blocks there would be a drainage pond 50-60 feet below grade running into a canal that is at a lower elevation than the ground floors of the underground houses so every dwelling would have a gutter that is entirely downhill to an adit so flooding wouldn't be an issue.

Specialized fire apparatus would be used, like a hydraulic bucket truck that would extend a boom downward through a hatch that every structure would have. Every dwelling would be sprinklered.

For a more futuristic touch, each house would have a shaft for a special elevator car that would then run above ground as an automated vehicle on a trackway to a standalone row of private garages. That way these houses wouldn't need to support a car on their roof and everyone would have a private way of going directly from their car to their home.

30 years ago, no one actually though this was a reality.

I think that was 20 years ago.

I remember SkyCity only because discovery channel had a show about it. That was peak cable, I was like 13 years old and loved the shit out of that stuff.

[ardecila]

^ This is just a modern version of Catalhoyuk (considered one of humanity's first cities).

Love the idea as a solution to the desert city problem, but I'm not clear on why we need to build cities in the desert in the first place.

[llamaorama]

Originally Posted by ardecila

Love the idea as a solution to the desert city problem, but I'm not clear on why we need to build cities in the desert in the first place.

You are free to sell your backyard to the House of Saud then. I'm sure the neighbors will be pleased.

But no really, the world is not prepared for a mass migration caused by climate change. To the extent some places can adapt they will have to do so.

[memph]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Does this building get credit for that height if the wind blows 30 meters of sand up against it, like how sand is deliberately deposited at jetties?

There won't be any sand left, it'll be needed to make all that glass.

[memph]

Originally Posted by llamaorama

This makes me think about how an partially underground city might work. Saudi Arabia would be an ideal location for various reasons.

Imagine a city of 2-3 story buildings at a density similar to South Philly. So you could get 500,000 in a few square miles and a metro system would be viable. Just blocks and blocks of 2-3 story buildings on a grid. Now put all those buildings underground where the lowest floor is 25-40 feet below grade. Or perhaps, raise the ground around them.

Solar tubes would be used to illuminate the inside. Being a bunker would require less energy to cool them, they could be a comfortable 70 F all the time even if it was 120 F outside. Above the ground the roof would be private "yards" for each dwelling and a stairwell/elevator shaft for access to the roads. The rest of the space would be taken up with solar panels.

For every so many blocks there would be a drainage pond 50-60 feet below grade running into a canal that is at a lower elevation than the ground floors of the underground houses so every dwelling would have a gutter that is entirely downhill to an adit so flooding wouldn't be an issue.

Specialized fire apparatus would be used, like a hydraulic bucket truck that would extend a boom downward through a hatch that every structure would have. Every dwelling would be sprinklered.

For a more futuristic touch, each house would have a shaft for a special elevator car that would then run above ground as an automated vehicle on a trackway to a standalone row of private garages. That way these houses wouldn't need to support a car on their roof and everyone would have a private way of going directly from their car to their home.



I think that was 20 years ago.

I remember SkyCity only because discovery channel had a show about it. That was peak cable, I was like 13 years old and loved the shit out of that stuff.

Would the city be open to the outside air? Or covered in some way?

[MolsonExport]

Saudi Arabia could choose to liberalize or they could build colossal Archologies. I guess the latter is easier for SA.

[NYbyWAYofGA]

Originally Posted by Double L

There is a city where everybody is living in one building, guaranteed all services in walking distance with all locations connected by public transportation?

There's the Bos-Wash corridor in the US, for starters.

[yaletown_fella]

If it actually comes to fruition, the mirrored glass wall will be a huge bird killer.

[Steely Dan]

* the trash has been taken out to alley *

if you cannot control your natural inclination towards being a complete dip-shit, we have a very nice toilet here for you to swim in.

[mrnyc]

yeah so as i was saying, before trash day lol, it seems some dont think anything with come of this audacious proposal, but i would bet this actually gets going and then immediately becomes a mundane new city like lagos ecko atlantic or the usual dubai goofiness.