Tokyo skyscraper will be twice as tall as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa

Move over, Burj Khalifa, a taller skyscraper is coming! Japan is reportedly planning a futuristic megacity that has at its focal point a building twice as tall as Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.

Located in Tokyo Bay, an inlet southeast of the city, the development — dubbed Next Tokyo 2045 — if approved would emerge as a mini city designed to combat climate change.

 

According to the Architectural Digest, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Leslie E. Robertson Associates’ design incorporates elements that improve the bay’s preparedness for natural disasters (such as earthquakes and typhoons) as well as a mile-high residential tower and a public-transport-friendly district.

The centrepiece of the water development’s hexagonal-shaped structures, the 1,699m (5,577ft) Sky Mile Tower, will dwarf the Burj Khalifa (828m) once complete in 2045. The building would be able to house 55,000 people, or 10 per cent of the city’s population.

It will feature multilevel sky lobbies with amenities such as shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, gyms, libraries and health centres. The building’s façade could also collect, treat and store water from the atmosphere at various levels in the tower, serving as its own apartments’ water supply so the upper floors don’t have to rely on a traditional water pump. In another innovation, cable-free elevators are planned, which would be able to move both vertically and horizontally.

The building’s hexagon shape offers the most wind resistance, although no details are available yet of its resistance to earthquakes.

Sky Mile Tower would be surrounded by a series of hexagonal islands designed to protect Tokyo from flooding, while also acting as foundation for homes for around half a million people. Connected by the high-speed transit system Hyperloop, the islands would also contain farms, some harvesting algae that could be turned into fuel. Other energy sources such as wind turbines, solar panels and kinetic energy from the transit system would also help power the megadevelopment.

The project is purely at concept stage for the time being, so Dubai can hold onto its crown as home to the world’s tallest skyscraper — for now.

http://gulfnews.com/gn-focus/country-guides/reports/japan/tokyo-skyscraper-will-be-twice-as-tall-as-dubai-s-burj-khalifa-1.1674598