SEE NEW PLANS FOR A SELF-SUSTAINING VERTICAL CITY IN THE SAHARA DESERT

Plans for a vertical city in the Sahara Desert. Why? It's not as if there isn't enough room to build a flat city on the ground that's self sustaining. So, I have to wonder why? Is this a modern day attempt to build a tower of Babylon?

French firms OXO Architectes and Nicolas Laisné Associés have partnered to produce an ambitious concept for a new style of desert living, proposing a vertical city—in the form of a sustainable 1,400-foot-tall tower—to be built in a Moroccan section of the Sahara. The structure’s massive footprint would provide 192 acres of floor space, and a ground-to-roof atrium would house a vertical garden to add lush greenery to the arid setting. While there are no plans yet to construct the City Sand Tower, the proposal is certainly alluring.

The mixed-use building would contain offices, residences, shops, conference and sports facilities, a hotel, a restaurant and bar, a museum, and an observatory. OXO and Laisné also left plenty of room for spaces to play, swim, and pray while enjoying sweeping desert views. Residents and visitors enter at ground level via narrow, curving streets styled after North African souks, or on the rooftop via helicopter.

The City Sand Tower is designed to complement the landscape both in form and function. With its asymmetrical silhouette and sandy, earthen colors, the building resembles a boulder. Solar power and deep geothermal wells will provide energy, while rainwater and recycled gray water will be the primary source of water for the people and plants of this vertical city.

Maybe ATS can help me understand and figure this out as to why there would be any need to build a vertical city in the desert......So, what says ATS?

www.architecturaldigest.com...

I think they're just building it because it sounds awesome. And really, that's the only reason humans have ever needed to build anything.

i see a myriad of problems with this..
looks cool though.

Why call it a "city" ?
It's a skyscraper.
I have no thoughts on it being the Tower of Babel though, it could be I suppose.

What's with the all caps title?

If this is a test run for a Mars habitat cool, otherwise wtf is the point? The logistics alone make it basically a doomed project from the start. Deserts are mostly lifeless for a reason...

a reply to: lostbook

They should dig down....there is water down there and more importantly, cooler temperatures....

originally posted by: violet
Why call it a "city" ?
It's a skyscraper.
I have thoughts on it being the Tower of Babel though, it could be I suppose.

What's with the all caps title?

I merely copied the title from the article and pasted.

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: lostbook

They should dig down....there is water down there and more importantly, cooler temperatures....

Don't tell Nestle there is water there!

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: lostbook

They should dig down....there is water down there and more importantly, cooler temperatures....

That would kind of kill the indoor garden for lack of sunlight. They don't believe there is much water down there they plan to trap rainwater and use it for geothermal.


Oh, I found another link.

www.gizmag.com...


It is all a cool idea, but I don't even think they are foreseeing it being anything more than a concept.

originally posted by: Grimpachi

Oh, I found another link.

www.gizmag.com...


It is all a cool idea, but I don't even think they are foreseeing it being anything more than a concept.

Yeah.. the article says "best taken with a pinch of salt and unlikely to be built."

Looks like a good way to publicize an architecture firm.

Says its just a concept so assume its not going to launch any time soon

They do similar things in Norway and Canada due to the extreme cold in Winter and heat in Summer. Both countries have built open plan shopping malls with office blocks inside atriums. Above those, they would have fitness centers and apartments. In Norway, Trondheim has the Trondheim Torg, and Solsiden. Everything is air conditioned so you don't have to worry about keeping warm or cool.

In Canada, cities like Montreal would connect together all the downtown office blocks by a Metro, so there's no need to go outside. It saves on heating and insulation to keep everything huddled together in one mass due to the surface area/volume ratio.

Was not as impressive as I had hoped.

So who would actually live there .. Last I thought was that the Sahara wasn't that populated. So I presume if it was built it would be for the rich and famous .. Just like Dubai