Could Rapture Be Built?

SkyscrapersOfNewYork · #1 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 5:51 AM**

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?

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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 · #2 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 6:27 AM**

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

Zerton · #3 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 6:55 AM**

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

NYC4Life · #4 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 6:57 AM**

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 · #5 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 7:36 AM**

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 · #6 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 7:51 AM**

Quote:

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

FREKI · #7 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 7:58 AM**

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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

Quote:

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..

SkyscrapersOfNewYork · #8 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 8:05 AM**

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Originally Posted by FREKI

have you played the sequel btw

yup im playing it right now!

(for the 6th or 7th time)

JHoward88 · #9 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 8:25 AM**

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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 · #10 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 10:08 AM**

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.

MolsonExport · #11 Posted **Aug 25, 2010, 1:16 PM**

991.com

M II A II R II K · #12 Posted **Aug 26, 2010, 2:05 AM**

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 · #13 Posted **Aug 26, 2010, 11:30 AM**

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 · #14 Posted **Aug 26, 2010, 11:11 PM**

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 · #15 Posted **Sep 1, 2010, 1:01 AM**

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

• Video Link

Tom In Chicago · #16 Posted **Sep 1, 2010, 7:42 PM**

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Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

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

Sure. . . why not. . .

. . .

uaarkson · #17 Posted **Sep 2, 2010, 1:13 AM**

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Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

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

• Video Link

No. Are you autistic or something??

SkyscrapersOfNewYork · #18 Posted **Sep 2, 2010, 1:41 AM**

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Originally Posted by uaarkson

No. Are you autistic or something??

no....i was just asking a simple question being that im not an engineer...

Tom In Chicago · #19 Posted **Sep 2, 2010, 5:11 PM**

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Originally Posted by SkyscrapersOfNewYork

no....i was just asking a simple question being that im not an engineer...

There are no engineering impossibilities. . . only economic ones. . .

. . .

SkyscrapersOfNewYork · #20 Posted **Sep 2, 2010, 5:48 PM**

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Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

There are no engineering impossibilities. . . only economic ones. . .

. . .

the world should get all the money together and build either the floating city of the underwater metropolis,im sure we'd put aside our differences for that