Could Rapture Be Built?

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

simple question,can the Bioshock city of Rapture actually be built? does engineering support the construction of a completely self sustaining city thousands of feet beneath the surface ancored into the bedrock of the oceans floor?

Theories on how they actually built Rapture.

So I always wondered on how Andrew Ryan and his followers actually went about building Rapture and I came up with a couple of theories.

1.) All the buildings in Rapture were just hollowed out husks that were then very carefully sunk into the ocean and by that creating an air pocket inside the building which gave them the room and space in order to start building it from the inside.

2.) The building were assembled on location and then they proceeded to pumped out all the water out while at the same time pump air in in order not to create a vacuum which in turn could cause the building to collapse onto itself from the pressure.

http://irrationalgames.com/community...-built-rapture





http://gameinformer.com/cfs-filesyst...00_rapture.jpg


http://cache-04.gawkerassets.com/ass..._s3_cyc_03.jpg

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/091124-rapture-1.jpg

[KevinFromTexas]

Not if it's under water. I would doubt the extreme pressure would allow for such structures.

[Zerton]

The most efficient shape for deep water structures is a sphere, definitely not an art deco skyscraper.

[NYC4Life]

Not sure how a suboceanic human civilization would coexist with the native aquatic marine wildlife. Would you really want a great white shark or large killer whale lurking outside your window? We can't even keep oil wells from leaking, lol.

[JHoward88]

I never heard of this fictional city until now, but from the pictures, it is super cool. I'll concur that we don't have the technology necessary to build something like that.

Consider the pipelines that bring water into New York City. That is just a few big pipes running under a river, but the digging of the new tunnel has taken/is taking years of hard work. Imagine the same basic concept, but billions of times more complex. The foundation work alone would be impossible.

You can't just make a skyscraper and then plop it down to the ocean floor like a paperweight; and you couldn't build an underwater skyscraper with submarines any more than you could construct the Empire State Building or Freedom Tower with blimps.

I think that this myth is busted.

[FREKI]

Originally Posted by JHoward88

I never heard of this fictional city until now, but from the pictures, it is super cool.

It's from a game series..

Bioshock 1: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...bioshock/23825

Bioshock 2: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/re...oshock-2/61280

Art Deco wonderland

Originally Posted by JHoward88

You can't just make a skyscraper and then plop it down to the ocean floor like a paperweight; and you couldn't build an underwater skyscraper with submarines any more than you could construct the Empire State Building or Freedom Tower with blimps.

I think that this myth is busted.

Well it's not impossible, just extremely costly ( and time consuming )

If most was pre-fabbed on the surface and combined at location by robots, RC mini subs and deep water divers you could build it..

[JHoward88]

Originally Posted by FREKI

Art Deco wonderland
Well it's not impossible, just extremely costly ( and time consuming )

If most was pre-fabbed on the surface and combined at location by robots, RC mini subs and deep water divers you could build it..

Fair enough. I'll concede to the point of agreeing that if building this was humanity's primary (and possibly exclusive) priority, we could probably figure out how to get the job done; but then again, if humanity was on one page enough to actually form a unified space program, we'd probably be building the Enterprise during this century too...

[Alpha]

How would you protect the light advertisements against water pressure? As I know it is already quite difficult to lay high voltage cables in very deep water.
The best way to build such a structure would be a dome without large windows.

[scalziand]

Originally Posted by JHoward88

You can't just make a skyscraper and then plop it down to the ocean floor like a paperweight...

To be fair, that is essentially how off shore oil rigs are built.

[JohnMarko]

Interesting idea.

First: Who says it has to be at the deepest portion underwater? I can see something that is "offshore" or in a few hundred feet to a thousand feet of water - the light in a few hundred feet would be just fine - think tropical waters.

Second: The tropical waters would be "warm" enough. Even Arctic locations would be OK - we already have submarines that survive in extreme temperatures.

Third: Submarines and space stations have already solved the the breathable atmosphere part as well as the pressures involved.

Fourth: While familiar rectangular shaped would probably not be feasable right now due to the pressure at extreme depths, like I said above, if it's not at extreme depths, there should be no problem.

Fifth: Even if at a particular location/depth the surrounding waters were dark, there could always be external lighting to achieve "views".

Last" A few firms are already exploring this idea - have been for a few decades now - all though so far most of them are locating them in tropical waters just off shore in the continental/island "shelves". Very initeresting stuff.

(And FYI - you wouldn't bellieve what major engineering/architectural firms have already developed for Moon and Mars based colonies - that stuff is more than three decaded old now and forever improving - I saw some really neat shit a while back. And these are serious proposals/presentations.

[DecoJim]

Originally Posted by JohnMarko

First: Who says it has to be at the deepest portion underwater? I can see something that is "offshore" or in a few hundred feet to a thousand feet of water - the light in a few hundred feet would be just fine - think tropical waters.

Second: The tropical waters would be "warm" enough. Even Arctic locations would be OK - we already have submarines that survive in extreme temperatures.

Third: Submarines and space stations have already solved the the breathable atmosphere part as well as the pressures involved.

Continental shelves can be up to about 500 feet (150 meters). If you sunk a supertall (how tall are the buildings in Bioshock anyway?) skyscraper at the outer edge of a continental shelf, only about 30-50 stories would be underwater.

Operators of military submarines do not have to worry about economics.

Spacecraft and space stations only have to worry about the pressure differential between (0 psi outside) and the internal atmosphere (presumably 14 psi). Only a few special submarines with spherical titanium pressure hulls can go down to the abyssal plains of the ocean floor. Military submarines can presumably dive at least a couple of thousand feet (the maximum depth is probably classified).

If you put the Burj Khalifa in water that was just deep enough for its tip to be at the surface of the water (2719 feet deep), the water pressure at ground floor would be about equivalent to 83 times atmospheric pressure at sea level or 1,220 psi (almost 2/3 ton per square inch)!

[Krases]

I still say it should just be freaking built on land.

Also, the floating city of Columbia could have been built on a mountain instead of actually flying (which I am pretty sure is basically impossible). It reminds me of the proposed America Summer Palace for the president that was rejected by Woodrow Wilson for being too over the top balls-crazy.

[JohnMarko]

Originally Posted by DecoJim

Continental shelves can be up to about 500 feet (150 meters). If you sunk a supertall (how tall are the buildings in Bioshock anyway?) skyscraper at the outer edge of a continental shelf, only about 30-50 stories would be underwater.

Operators of military submarines do not have to worry about economics.

Spacecraft and space stations only have to worry about the pressure differential between (0 psi outside) and the internal atmosphere (presumably 14 psi). Only a few special submarines with spherical titanium pressure hulls can go down to the abyssal plains of the ocean floor. Military submarines can presumably dive at least a couple of thousand feet (the maximum depth is probably classified).

If you put the Burj Khalifa in water that was just deep enough for its tip to be at the surface of the water (2719 feet deep), the water pressure at ground floor would be about equivalent to 83 times atmospheric pressure at sea level or 1,220 psi (almost 2/3 ton per square inch)!

The question was can it be done. It can be done.

Is it cost effective? Is the private space flights for rich "space tourists" cost effective? Some think it is - because it's already happening. And private space launch companies are already being constructed.

Economics, pressure, etc. is not a problem. Only the timing hasn't been right so far.

[FREKI]

Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

simple question,can the Bioshock city of Rapture actually be built? does engineering support the construction of a completely self sustaining city thousands of feet beneath the surface ancored into the bedrock of the oceans floor?

I'm not sure in the time it was set, but nowadays yes, but it will be so extremely costly to do it that way ( as Kevin point out the pressure is extreme, so the structures would need to be massive ) and unlike in the game, it would be very dark down there so all those windows would be wasted and work like mirrors..

And it would be very cold too, so the energy demands would be very high...



have you played the sequel btw

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Originally Posted by FREKI

have you played the sequel btw

yup im playing it right now! (for the 6th or 7th time)

[MolsonExport]

991.com

[M II A II R II K]

It could work if you build a gigantic snowglobe around it that would ward off all the water instead, and add some makeshift weather inside at the same time.

[LSyd]

it was built via global warming; the waters rose over it. everyone called him a fool when he built an art deco metropolis on low land; now who's laughing?

-

[Krases]

You really can't go wrong with the views. I think it would be cool if an art deco city like rapture was simply built on land.


2kGames

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

well what about this "city of Columbia",an american engineering marvel. could it be built

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