DUBAI | Rotating Skyscraper | 30 FLOORS | VISION
 

Dubai plans first rotating skyscraper

Posted 11/29/2006 12:14 PM ET

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Arab city with the palm-shaped islands and the sail-shaped hotel is adding to its eclectic skyline by building the world's first rotating skyscraper, a 30-story apartment tower that revolves on its base.

The tower, announced Wednesday, will use the Persian Gulf's abundant sunshine to power the building's slow rotation that brings it full circle once a week, said Nick Cooper, a British engineer designing the rotation mechanism.

"This will be a fair building," said Cooper, of M.G. Bennett and Associates Ltd. of Rotherham, England. "Everybody will have the same views for the same amount of time, so you won't have certain rooms with the best view."

The 80,000-ton building with 200 apartments will sit on a giant bearing 30 yards in diameter, coated with a nearly frictionless polymer, Cooper said. Twenty small electric engines will turn the building a few degrees each hour, Cooper said.

"It will be indexing around on the hour," Cooper said. "It moves very slowly. It's not a theme park ride."

Work on the rotating tower is supposed to begin in June.

"Not only will it defy the laws of gravity and momentum, but also it stands to redefine the standards for luxury living in the region and the world," said Tav Singh of developer Dubai Property Ring.

Its been done before.

Suite Vollard

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/pc/?id=136410&aid=8

This building is the only one of its kind in the world, as each of the 11 apartments can rotate 360?.
- Each apartment can spin individually in any direction. One rotation takes a full hour.
- The facades are composed of double sheets of glass, in different colors (blue, gold, and silver) on different floors. This gives a spectacular effect as the floors turn in different directions.
- The apartment rings rotate around a static core used for building services, utilities, and all areas which require plumbing.
- Suite Vollard was a case study for more than 30 companies in Brazil and one from Germany.
- Each apartment was sold for approximately R$ 400,000.00 ($US 300,000.00).
- The first two floors of the building are an Executive Center.

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=...uritiba-brazil

http://www.emporis.com/en/il/im/?id=182727

rotators
 

extremely COOL, thanks.

another rotating tower
 

not a skyscraper per se, but it rotates 360.

Glasgow Tower

http://www.pbase.com/lsyd/image/51478436.jpg

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The Dubai building will rotate entirely, not just floor by floor. That's why it's unique.

the Glasgow Tower does that. sorry Dubai, the Scots beat ya. :haha:

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Well, yes, but the Glasgow tower isn't a full-on "building", it's more of a structure. It's elevators that bring you up to an observatory.

If this is true, :uhh: how would the pipes and cables work?

Seems very interesting.

Maybe they would have a wireless system. As for the pipes and toilets that's another story.

After a day of living there I'd spend much of my time hanging out of the window, spreading vomit on an even circular path as the building goes around.

^^ Holy crap! If you get so sick in a building that turns one rotation a week I wonder what you'd be like in a rollercoaster :D


The building:

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9883/rottu1.jpg

Spending a minute on an adrenaline-pumping coaster vs spinning for a week in a disorienting building... I'll take the former.

now that is dumb all the extra up keep for it to rotate

^^^ All I have to say is...assesments?...GOOD GRIEF! I can not begin to fathom how much maintainence this is going to require.

Because I assume that like any other rotating building, the core will not rotate.

I thought the same thing, except for privacy.

How will the connecting doors separating the rooms work if the unit rotates?

For example, the bathroom, kitchen and laundry must be located in the core, yet the bathroom door will connect to what room?

What about electrical cables and the central air conditioning/heating?

That setup seems confusing. Not very interesting actually, since it limits the design of the interior.

Um...the bathroom and the kitchen of an apartment are NEVER located in the core. The core usually holds the elevators, staircases, cables and pipes.

Um...But the bathroom pipes and electricity on the rotating floors need to be hooked up to these cables and pipes in the non-rotating core.