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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Millenium Tower

*I watched a TV program this evening, on the Discovery Channel, about Hong Kong's plans to meet the population explosion head-on.  They are drawing up designs for a 1/2 mile, 170-story, cone-shaped building they call "Millenium Tower."  As there is no land space to accommodate this project, they plan to build it in the harbor. 

They said, among other things, that this gargantuan building would require all the steel Japan could produce in a year...and as that's impossible [they need steel for other purposes], this will essentially be a global project.  They mentioned the massive amounts of concrete which will need to be used, but I can't recall the analogy used for that.

Usually I don't watch programs like these, but it caught my interest.  They mentioned [it's hard for me to describe some of these matters, so please bear with me] that it will be built by making building an enclosed area first, and that everything will be built beneath this enclosed area, rising with the understructures...at the end of the project, this first enclosed area will be the "roof" of the Tower. 

Apparently they believe it will be very earthquake resistant.  One major obstacle they're trying to tackle is the elevator system within the tower; with 100,000 people occupying 170 storys, they are looking into designing elevators which move not only vertically, but horizontally as well [can slide to the next exit of a same level].

They mentioned that movie theaters, medical stations, grocery stores, and etc. will also be included [makes sense].

I'd like to live long enough to see this baby built. 

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Phobos

Member

Registered: 2002-01-02

Posts: 1,103

Re: Millenium Tower

They said, among other things, that this gargantuan building would require all the steel Japan could produce in a year...and as that's impossible [they need steel for other purposes], this will essentially be a global project.  They mentioned the massive amounts of concrete which will need to be used, but I can't recall the analogy used for that.

Is the base of that building something like a kilometer in area?  I remember someone telling me a few months ago about an extremely massive building being proposed in Japan with elevators that travel not just vertically but horizontally as well.  Something like that would definately take lakes of concrete to construct, especially if all of the floors are concrete.  Similiar types of buildings could probably be constructed on Mars as a means of housing thousands upon thousands of people in the far future.

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To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Millenium Tower

Is the base of that building something like a kilometer in area?

*I don't recall the exact measurements, but a kilometer sounds about right...

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Phobos

Member

Registered: 2002-01-02

Posts: 1,103

Re: Millenium Tower

Usually I don't watch programs like these, but it caught my interest.  They mentioned [it's hard for me to describe some of these matters, so please bear with me] that it will be built by making building an enclosed area first, and that everything will be built beneath this enclosed area, rising with the understructures...at the end of the project, this first enclosed area will be the "roof" of the Tower.

I don't quite envision how this works.  Are they going to "jack up" the building as they construct it so that the first floor they build ends up being the highest floor when it's done?  I think what's really screwing me up is how you said everything is going to be built beneath the enclosed area.  What exactly is the enclosed area?  Is it the exterior frames that are braced together and then filled in?  Please elaborate.

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To achieve the impossible you must attempt the absurd

Ian

Banned

Registered: 2002-01-08

Posts: 236

Re: Millenium Tower

Will it be a closed ecosystem liike the science fiction idea of a millenium tower that was proposed in Star Trek Voyager. Are they using a similar idea to build this huge tower?

Josh Cryer

Moderator

Registered: 2001-09-29

Posts: 3,830

Re: Millenium Tower

Nah, I read about this, and saw this on TV, too. It wouldn't be closed, for the most part, because there is no major agriculture facility (not enough to feed everyone). So it will have to have food and other things shipped in.

Most people that lived there would work there, though. Which is really interesting, when you think about it. They have all sorts of things, from gaming areas, to food areas, it really is a city into the sky.

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Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

Gennaro

Member

From: Eta Cassiopeiae (no, Sweden re

Registered: 2003-03-25

Posts: 591

Re: Millenium Tower

I suspect the TV-program is a few years old. Remember I saw it myself at some point.
Doubt it will be built now as the Japanese economy is in shambles. Same crisis that have been spreading around the globe during the last few years, I fear, and which by the way most certainly has nothing to do with two skyscrapers coming down in New York. The roots go much deeper.

Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Millenium Tower

Usually I don't watch programs like these, but it caught my interest.  They mentioned [it's hard for me to describe some of these matters, so please bear with me] that it will be built by making building an enclosed area first, and that everything will be built beneath this enclosed area, rising with the understructures...at the end of the project, this first enclosed area will be the "roof" of the Tower.

I don't quite envision how this works.  Are they going to "jack up" the building as they construct it so that the first floor they build ends up being the highest floor when it's done?

*Oh Phobos, I'm sorry [!!!].  How in tarnation did I miss answering your question?  You asked in September and I'm answering in April.  I think maybe I intended to respond and then forgot...or maybe a post disappeared. 

Yes, that's right...the first floor will be "jacked up" as new stories are built beneath it.  I know it sounds weird to try and visualize.  The ever-rising first floor will serve as supply for the crew -- water, food storage, etc.  Everything will be built beneath it, as it rises to the top.  And finally it'll "cap" the tower.

If it's ever built, that is.  And yes (in reply to a very recent post), Japan's economy is certainly a factor...heck, the global economy as well.

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

Swede

Member

From: Stockholm.se.eu

Registered: 2003-06-02

Posts: 2

Re: Millenium Tower

Ah, the Millenium Tower (of Tokyo, not to be confused with the ones in London and Frankfurt:)).

Here's a good link on it:
http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/wm/bu/101805/

Basically a small city in one building, but still very much just a huge skyscraper (e.g. only plants are decorations). When the plans fell through in Tokyo, they reworked it a bit and launched it for Shanghai (been dead there too for years).