At a cost of nearly $150 billion, you’re not going to see an Ultima Tower grace the skies anytime soon. The two-mile high structure is the brainchild of some forward-thinking architects looking for some creative ways to solve the world’s future population crisis. With people living in denser concentrations — such a structure (which has a square-mile footprint and can hold one million people) might be needed many years from now. From the article,“The shape of the building draws inspiration from the nests of termites, a 1-mile wide funnel shape with gently curved sides. A criss-crossing network of double-helix cables distributes tension across the outer covering in such a way as to allow the entire building to absorb stresses instead of single areas. The design is extremely aerodynamically efficient, and resistant to earthquake shock waves. The structure is cooled in a similar way to a termite nest - the lower levels are cooled by water flow (in this case, a series of ground-floor waterfalls) and the cool air rises through the building, taking heat energy with it, and exits at the upper floors into the atmosphere.
The entire 150 million square foot surface of the building is covered with photovoltaic cells and wind turbine energy generators - and the extreme height of the structure allows a new form of energy generation to occur, using the differential in air pressure between the ground floor and the 10,500-foot high tip to generate further electricity for the project.”
Pretty incredible — and each of the 120 levels would feature their own fully landscaped habitats with a “sky” 30 to 50 meters high and inbuilt lakes, streams, rivers, hills and ravines. Sunlight would be filtered from above by an intricate system of mirrors — very similar to how the Egyptians lit the inside of their massive structures.
So what do you think? Would you like to live inside the Ultima Tower?
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