WEBVTT - Skyscrapers and Vertical Cities: Part Two 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.960 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.439 podcast that looks at the future and says skyscrapers and 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.640 subways and stations staring up at the United Nations. I'm 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.959 Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Foam, and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:27.720 this is going to be part two of a two 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.080 part episode. When we were in the studio talking about 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:34.440 the future of tall buildings and skyscrapers and vertical civilization, 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:37.000 we we got so into the topic that we ended 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:39.400 up going very long, so we decided to split it 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.040 into for you all. So so, uh, it's not to 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.640 overburden your ears. It's easily digestible chunks. Yes, So if 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:47.879 you didn't listen to part one, go ahead and go 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.000 do that and we'll meet you back right here. And 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.480 now we're gonna talk all about some engineering, incredible feats 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:59.760 and science fiction ideas and uh, probably some stuff about 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.160 lad Yes. So yeah, as long as you have caught 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.679 up on the first episode, please continue with what we're 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:10.160 about to say right now. One of the things that 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.000 occurred to me when I was first researching this topic 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.600 is that when you think about it from my perspective, 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:17.959 I wonder what you guys think about this. A super 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.760 tall building isn't just a building. Like when you think 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:26.920 about a building, it's mostly pretty static. I mean, depending 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.360 on how many you might have utilities coming into a 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:31.640 home or something like that. But if it's it's not 0:01:31.680 --> 0:01:35.319 just like building a very very large shed. Building a 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:40.160 skyscraper is more like building a gigantic machine with many 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:44.720 moving parts and functional difficulties you have to face and manage. Yeah, 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.000 the taller building gets, the more engineering challenges you're going 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.600 to face. Yeah, And so I wanted to start with 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.120 one example that's sort of, uh, one of the frontiers 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:59.400 of future super tall building design. Water distribution. Right, So, 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.320 how do you get water to the toilets and the 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.640 taps and the days and the recreational pressure washing machines 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:11.880 on the top floor of a building you're not aware 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:16.239 of the league's never mind. Well, to get to get 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.079 water up to the top of a really tall building, 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:19.600 you have to pump it. I mean, you can't just 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.600 rely on on pressure from a water tower or something 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.480 like that. If you're going up above where a water 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.600 tower would be, Uh, you have to pump the water out. 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:30.520 But the taller you're building is the more difficult, the 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.520 more costs, the more time intensive it is to get 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.519 the water from ground level up to the top of 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:40.280 the building. So how do you get around this problem? Well, 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:42.359 you know, we already talked about one in in the 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.359 in terms of the Shanghai Tower collecting rainwater. Yeah, that's 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:47.800 an oldie but a goodie, and depending on what's in 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.000 your rainwater, you might only be able to use it 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.640 for certain purposes like the gray water uses that Lauren 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.760 was talking about, right, But another proposal that will get 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.880 to later on is the sky Mile tower in Future Tokyo. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:01.480 I want to talk about this towards the end of 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.080 the episode. It's it's really, I think more of an 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.000 idea than a than a real building proposal, but it 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:12.320 suggests an interesting solution, which is cloud harvesting. Have you 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.880 ever heard about this? Uh? No, I hadn't heard about 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.239 it before, but it does sort of make sense the idea. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.440 It's almost like creating a a surface of condensation so 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.760 that you can collect the water moisture that's already in 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.079 the air exactly. Yeah, So it's a method of using 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.040 specialized materials to harvest water vapor from the air itself. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.760 And one standard example, the one you might have read 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.040 about before, isn't so much used in buildings, but it's 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.440 just a standalone collector you might use where it's something 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.960 like a big piece of mesh fabric that's specially designed 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:46.160 in such a way that when it catches the wind 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.560 water vapor in the air, condenses in the fabric and 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.080 then drips down into the bottom of the fabric and 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.920 eventually collects in a receptacle. Have you actually seen I mean, 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:56.960 I've been seeing it on Facebook all over the place. 0:03:56.960 --> 0:03:59.040 I think it might even be a Kickstarter campaign, but 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.520 it's it's a amping. It's it's meant to go be 0:04:02.840 --> 0:04:05.000 a thing that you take camping with you, and it's 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.720 essentially some sort of of like almost like a mug, 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:14.000 but it's designed to pull moisture from the air, condensed 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.119 down and fill up so that you have drinking water 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.680 right there and you just leave it out. And it's 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.599 supposed to pull humidity from the air and condense that 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.200 into water. I have not looked into it further to 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.479 make sure that it uh makes sense, but I mean 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.640 the basic principles definitely makes sense. Whether that particular product 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.880 works the way advertised, I don't know. In principle, this 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.000 is not like an if thing. You you can use 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:40.320 materials to collect water vapor from the air. That's a 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.640 proven concept. I don't know about the scale issues of 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.920 applying that to the water needs of a occupants skyscraper. 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.440 It goes a mile into the sky, as the sky 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.680 mile tower will propose. And again I'm going to mention 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:58.200 that in a bit, but but it's a cool idea 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.560 in general. I guess the way the would apply to 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:04.480 a skyscraper would mean something about putting the special materials 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.560 and drainage systems on the outside facade of the building, 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.200 although at that point you might need to start getting 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:15.600 back to terriffence our our climate episodes again into at 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:20.200 least being aware of what that kind of moisture collection 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.320 is going to do to your weather patterns around the 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.000 city and whether or not it's going to have a 0:05:24.000 --> 0:05:27.040 detrimental effect. Yeah, it's kind of hard to imagine without 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:31.520 having built it first. Yeah, but there are other big challenges, 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.200 and one of them we've already kind of alluded to 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:35.600 you You mentioned like the idea of traffic flow in 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:41.000 these large buildings, but beyond traffic flow, just creating elevators 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:46.240 that work in these environments is incredibly challenging. Yeah. Just 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:51.320 try to imagine taking a normal elevator up one hundred 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:54.720 floors to your office in the morning. Yeah. Well yeah. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.760 The thing. The thing is, guys, is that if you're 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.560 going to have an elevator pull you a couple hundred 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.160 stories up into the sky, it's going to need some 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.839 really serious muscle. And I've got some statistics from a 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.480 really great piece that was in Scientific American in by 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:14.320 one Larry green Meyer, and he was talking about the 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.360 elevators in the one World Trade Center, which is the 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:21.640 tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at one thousand, seven 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.919 hundred and seventy six ft sev seventy six. Get it, 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.600 sit down, John, see what they did there, um which 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:35.320 is five forty one and it has seventy one elevators 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.359 that are driven by eight electric motors weighing two point 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:45.200 three tons apiece, which used five hundred tons of counterweights. Yeah, 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.040 so you're talking, you know, you have to use these 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.200 massive counterweights in order to uh to get these elevators 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:54.680 to work the way they were intended to work. And also, Joe, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.680 you were pointing out before we even started to go 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:03.120 into the studio for the video piece that ultimately it's 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:05.960 not just the elevator that you have to worry about 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.960 or the weight, but the physical cable as well. Yeah. 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.600 I mean, as the cable keeps getting longer, So what 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.200 what they would typically use in a system like this 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.720 is steel wound rope and then a counterweight and a 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.840 pulley system. And yeah, so once you get hundreds and 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:26.040 hundreds of feet of steel cable, that really starts adding 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.000 up in weight in itself. Yeah. Yeah, And and just 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:30.800 in terms of the tentsile strength that you need in 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.800 the materials science involved in that kind of equation. Yeah. Yeah, 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:36.600 it's it's kind of like we we talked about this 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.680 with our Space Elevators episode two. The idea that as 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:43.840 as you get longer, the weight gets gets greater, which 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:45.760 means the strength needs to be greater in order to 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.080 handle the way the thickness needs to be greater, which 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.120 it just it just becomes like once you hit a 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.320 certain tipping point, you realize this is no longer practical, right. 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.720 But another thing that I think is important to consider 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.520 with the elevators is that they're not just for moving 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:02.480 cargo or something. Yeah. There, there's there's delicate human people, 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.720 uh shoved shoved up in these things. Yeah. It kind 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.480 of reminds me of some of the often overlooked limitations 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:13.120 on aircraft and spacecraft design. Rapid acceleration is great on 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.400 a crued spacecraft, unless it's so rapid that it renders 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:21.280 unconscious or kills the passengers, generally considered to be a 0:08:21.320 --> 0:08:25.640 bad thing trowned upon in most offices. Now, I doubt 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.560 we're going to have an elevator that would kill you, 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.239 but there could be elevators that would be really unpleasant. Sure, 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.680 I'm reminded of of like space Mountain, like the amount 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:36.400 of jostle that you get on a on an old 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:40.800 roller coaster. Okay, So to to get elevators to move 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.280 both quickly and smoothly, the rail systems that guide them 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.760 need to be as frictionless as they possibly can. But 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.079 since elevators are moving vertically, their rails have to come 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:53.480 in these short chunks that are going to support the structure, 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.200 meaning that you need a lot of rail joints to 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.679 connect all of them, um which are bumpier than just 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:03.240 a stretch of rail rights you can probably understand. You 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.920 also then have to account for stuff like the building's 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.079 potential temperature changes and sway, as we were talking about 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.560 in Shanghai Tower, and you just wind up needing to 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:16.240 engineer all kinds of materials and systems that help absorb 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.840 shocks and and kind of smooth the ride out so 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.760 that you're not rattling people's teeth. I would imagine that 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:25.320 with all those joints. Yeah, like you're saying, the temperature changes. 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.480 If if one section is slightly warmer than the other, 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:30.520 it may expand a bit, which means that you have 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.720 created a bit of a jostling sensation as the elevator 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.280 passes that that joint of track sway. As you point 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.599 out again, anything that could push these rails out of 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.920 alignment could cause some, if if not dangerous, at least 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.200 uncomfortable side effects. Certainly, you also have to deal with 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.480 air pressure, and not just in the cabin like we 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.679 were talking about your your ears popping in that kind 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.800 of internal discomfort, but also in the shaft of the elevator, 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.480 because pulling an elevator car around means that you're also 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.320 shing around a lot of air and creating a higher 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.640 air pressure in the direction that the cab is moving 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:10.440 and a lower air pressure behind it. So that means it, okay, 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.040 like if an elevator is moving up, the resulting air 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:15.800 pressure could blow out the doors on the floor on 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:19.120 the floor above it and suck in the doors on 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:23.400 the floor below it, right, So yeah, I just I 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.960 just imagine, like if they have not thought about this 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.800 with these super tall buildings, all I can imagine is 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.480 going through the front door, walking toward the desk, and 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.520 then immediately getting blown out the building because all the 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:37.400 elevators are coming down to the ground floor, pushing all 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.480 that air out into the lobby, and then you just 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:43.960 shoot out like a bullet. Uh. So yeah, that's clearly 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:45.880 something that you have to have some way to vent 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.240 that air in a in a way that's going to 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.600 be safe well, or just to just to mitigate it 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.240 through aerodynamic controls on the elevator cab itself, on the 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.600 outside of the cab. Um And yeah, a shaft design 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.959 at that point becomes very importan um uh computer programming. Hey, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.360 if you guys have ever waited for elevators, let's say, 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.480 a busy hotel or a convention center. You know how 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:12.840 tough it is for even very good computers to handle 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.839 large numbers of requests in multi elevator banks, largely due 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.160 to the fact that some jerk faces will hit both 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.600 the up and the down button no matter which direction 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.120 they need to go, because they figure again in the 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.480 first one that gets there. Don't do that, No, never 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.880 do that. Just the worst. If you need to go up, 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:31.920 just press the up button. Just press the up button, 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.760 because then the computer system can handle it and you'll 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:39.840 get there faster. Trust me, Yes, don't confuse computers. It's impolite. 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:45.920 See you with dragon con Uh. I just use a 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:50.760 personal gyrocopter and I'm great. Balcony to balcony, baby, go 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.680 go gadget copter. There you go. But yeah, there's there's 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.319 also another consideration with these super tall buildings and elevators, 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.640 a very important one, which is what happens if something 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.440 were to go catastrophically wrong and you need to evacuate 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.120 the building. Uh? Yeah, you know how like most elevator 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:09.640 lobbies have those signs warning that, you know, in case 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.440 of a fire or whatever, you should use the stairs. Uh. 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.760 In super tall buildings, people would not physically be able 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.560 to exit fast enough via stairs. So these types of 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.240 elevators need to need to be able to keep working 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.600 in the case of an emergency, and also need to 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:30.600 be programmed to take people to like designated rescue floors, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.520 which is hypothetically the quicker, easier way to get people 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.520 out in in an emergency. Right And in other words, 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.320 you won't don't have to worry about having to go 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.200 down a hundred and twenty flights of stairs. Yes, that 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.920 sounds like a bad day, you know that. That sounds like, Yeah, 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.640 that sounds like there's gonna be a horrible outcome no 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:50.800 matter what. So yeah, you have to think about that. 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:54.000 That's it's actually one of the big challenges that I 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:56.800 listed when we were thinking about pros and cons and 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.080 uh and I'm glad that you addressed it here because 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.360 it's it's are the ones that merely jumped out at 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.959 me other future technologies that people are considering in in 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:08.199 terms of because because all of these are are pretty 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:13.040 much expansions of typical elevator technologies and stands today. But 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:19.400 but people are forward thinking indeed, And uh so, okay, 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.200 so we talked about tracks, what else moves at high speeds? 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:28.160 On tracks bananas, no trains, Um, and we've got mag 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.560 leave bananas. No, I mean trains. So why not you know, 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:36.880 motor propelled magnetic levitation elevators. People have actually suggested this. Yeah, 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:40.240 it's an interesting idea. Yeah, and Okay, they'd use a 0:13:40.320 --> 0:13:42.640 lot of energy and they'd create a lot of heat 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:45.440 that you need to figure out how to dispel. But 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.680 you could have multiple cabs in any given shaft moving 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:51.040 around at the same time, and they wouldn't have to 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.440 go just up and down. We're like basically talking about 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:59.760 a wonkovator. But the really cool idea here, Yeah, allowing 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.560 them to go a multiple directions means that you wouldn't 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.640 have to wait on one car in one shaft, like 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.320 you said, You could have multiple cars moving around like 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.760 in a circle, so that you just have to wait 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:15.280 until the next one arrives. Yeah. Also, the snowsberries would 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:20.760 taste like snowsberries, they would. I dispute you. I've got 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:23.440 I've got five little guys outside who have a whole 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:29.000 song about it. I've got one really big guy. Uh 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.320 right now, none of these maglev elevators exist. Um. Longtime 0:14:33.360 --> 0:14:36.080 elevator company Otis was playing with the idea in the 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.600 late nineties, but eventually shelved it. Uh Fisson Krupp, which 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.800 is the designer of the one World Trade Center elevators, 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.360 and a local company here for us. They're up in Alpharetta. 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.240 I didn't know that. Yeah, they've got their own version 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.440 called Project Multi, which is in the works. It's it's 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:56.080 vertical shafts would connect via these like horizontal turnstiles, which 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.520 would let a single elevator cab like snake its way 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.000 through a bill being as needed, and as of last summer, 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.480 their plan was to test a prototype in Germany as 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.320 of Yeah, I don't I don't know. So I think 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:12.280 the idea of Maglave elevators is a really interesting one 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.560 and definitely has some promise in general. At this particular company, 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.000 I'm not sure about because I I saw a piece 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.520 kind of critical of their proposal in the I think 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.760 it was a tech opinion piece in Al Jazeera, and 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:29.240 so I don't know what to think about that. Also, 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.720 it seemed like I was trying to find recent stuff 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:33.960 on their proposal and couldn't. But maybe maybe they're just 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.320 working on it. Yeah. The last that I could find 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.200 about it was in the middle of Yeah, but you 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.560 know who knows. Maybe they're they're quietly doing it. Yeah. Well, 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.240 you know what's interesting also is that we've seen some 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:54.080 really cool um proposals for skyscraper design not necessarily meant 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:58.080 to be put into practical construction. Sometimes it's more of 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:03.000 a here's a really in a sting concept. Uh that 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:07.120 changes the way we think about what a skyscraper could be. Yeah. 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:09.520 One of the ones I wanted to talk about is, 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.800 like we said, I don't think anybody's gonna build this 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.480 anytime soon, but we can dream. It was a really 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.640 cool design from the Polish architecture firm, Uh not firm, 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.360 It's a Polish architecture collective called BOMB. I think that 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.160 was made from the initials the last initials of the 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:32.120 architects who were involved, but it one and Evolo Design 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.320 competition with the idea of this thing called the Essence skyscraper. 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:41.680 And essentially this is a very tall building with multiple levels, 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:47.560 each containing massive recreated natural environments of various climates. So 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:49.640 one way I think, the way I put it in 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.800 the video script is that it's like a gigantic multi 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.120 level terrarium. But another way to think of it is 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:58.480 it's it's sort of like going through all the episodes 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.960 of Planet Earth with each level of the building, So 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:06.720 you have levels that are caves, jungles, desert, grassland, glaciers. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.040 And I love this idea. I wish somebody would build 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.199 something like this because that would be so cool to 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.160 have right in the middle of a city. The concept 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.160 drawings are really cool. Like the one concept I saw, 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:21.320 the entire exterior of the skyscraper was transparent, so you 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.120 could see in and see these different environments at different 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:28.879 like they look to be suspended in mid air because that, 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:33.720 you know, the entire building was transparent. So it was 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:36.360 a really sort of star trek e kind of idea. 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.199 And like you had also mentioned in your script, it 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:43.240 gives you the opportunity to visit all sorts of different 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:48.280 climates without ever having to leave your home city, which, 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:50.359 depending upon what you want to do, could be great. 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.520 I mean that could mean that you, instead of getting 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.600 on a plane and generating a larger carbon footprint for 0:17:56.640 --> 0:17:59.560 your vacation, you go and you press a little elevator 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.879 button and you go visit the Antarctic. Yeah, and I 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.120 would certainly say that I wouldn't hope that it would 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:09.000 be a complete substitution forever going out into nature, but 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.600 as something that would be close by without you having 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.240 to travel a great distance. For for city dwellers, I 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.359 think it would be a really great life enriching kind 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.600 of thing. Yeah, I accessibility is lovely. Yeah, I just 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.840 don't know how you would ever, Like, I can't imagine 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:28.040 the energy needs that building would be, honest, in order 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:32.360 to maintain that many very different ecosystems. Yeah, you can't 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.760 put the actually I don't know. Maybe you could put 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.639 like the desert room in the glacier room next to 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.320 one another, so that so that the the offput of 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.240 the energy from one could could Then you're like, well, 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.639 I gotta go into the swamp room. It's the one 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.720 that goes in between the two. Uh. Yeah, that was 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:52.520 lunch break. Time to go catch some crowd ads. That 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.240 is a really interesting, interesting concept. Another one which we 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.760 mentioned earlier the sky Mild Tower. Yeah, this is another 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.840 one that who knows if anybody will ever actually try 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.560 to build anything like this right now, it's just it's 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.440 an idea, it's proposal, but it is a cool one, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.639 I think. Um And so, a couple of firms called 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:16.800 Cone Peterson Fox Associates and Leslie E. Robertson Associates have 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.159 they recently proposed this thing called Sky Mile Tower, and 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.239 it would be a tower in Tokyo. And actually it 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.760 wasn't just a tower they proposed. They were talking about 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:31.040 this whole idea called Next Tokyo and it imagines the 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.320 possibility of creating islands of reclaimed land in the middle 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:37.600 of Tokyo Bay. So if you know what Tokyo Bay 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.240 looks like, it's kind of an elongated oval shaped sort 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.160 of thing, uh. And in the middle of it there 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.840 there's a place where the land masses on both sides 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.160 kind of come close together. And this would imagine creating 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:54.119 this artificial archipelago across that area. And and some of 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:58.080 the islands are like these hexagonal yeah things that you know, 0:19:58.680 --> 0:20:02.560 they look extremely man made, yes, And the whole concept drawings, 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:04.600 I should say, yeah, And the idea of it is 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.719 that it would it would not just be a place 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:11.240 for for transit and for you know, high occupancy buildings, 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:14.159 but that it would also serve a function for the city, 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:17.720 uh in protecting the rest of the bay from extreme 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.600 coastal weather events and breaking up incoming waves. Sort of 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.000 like the idea of how can we continue to build 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:29.080 if Tokyo continues to grow, how can we continue to 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.280 build in a way that also takes into account things 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.760 like climate change, which could end up causing greater, more 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:40.159 frequent violent weather events. Uh, and yet we still have 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:43.600 this this other demand of continuing to grow our our 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.280 city and furthermore, the obvious problem that we've seen with 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.920 with tsunami and stuff like that. Yeah. So so why 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:57.760 call it the sky Mild Tower. Well, because if actually built, 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.560 the tower would be about eaters tall, which is about 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:07.359 one vertical mile. Yeah, at one point six kilometers so yeah, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:14.399 oh yes, because kilometers instead of that is so tall, 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.520 this would uh, this would make that that other tower 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:19.199 I was talking about that's actually in the process of 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:24.359 being built, uh look tiny in comparison. Yes. So, so, 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.040 right now, the tallest building in the world is the 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:30.760 Birch Khalifa in Dubai. Yes, that's the biggest mega tall 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.679 building that exists, and that is around eight hundred and 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:38.800 thirty meters tall. So this would be almost doubling the 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:42.160 height of the tallest skyscraper in the world right now, 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:45.040 which is already hard for me to imagine I without 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.919 actually going to Dubai and seeing this this building in person, 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.639 it's very difficult for me to imagine a building that tall. 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:55.080 I don't have a good I don't have a really 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:58.160 good idea of how long a mile is, like being 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:01.280 annoyed by like three quarters the way through it that 0:22:01.280 --> 0:22:04.000 I'm still walking. Yeah, So so if you were to 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.480 imagine a mile straight up, that makes it even more challenging, right, 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.880 because most of us don't jump that high, So I'm 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:15.400 unfortunately not Spider Man. Yeah. When you when you hear 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.800 the dudes of the gym bragging about their mile time, 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:19.399 it's like no, no, no no, no, I'm talking about a 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:24.120 vertical mile. So again, like we were saying earlier, this 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.200 is this is sort of a concept. It's not necessarily 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.880 something that's going to be put into there, don't There 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.000 don't appear to be any plans to fund this or 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:36.159