The future of architecture?

Interesting idea there Jaz! I don't know of any biorhythm-architecture studies. There are a lot of studies that look at light, air and open spaces and the psychological impact they have on building occupants, but I don't recall ever seeing one that integrated biorhythms.

Moving buildings like this is a very new concept and while I think the engineering obstacles can be overcome, I am pretty skeptical that they can actually pull it off and still make the building "livable". For example, when you have a massive motor for every floor one question that pops up is how do you isolate the vibration and noise of movement from adjacent units and still allow movement of the floor? This isn't a minor issue since failure to do so means that people will be disturbed awakened every time an upstairs or downstairs neighbor decided to rotate their apartment to watch the sun rise/set. Also the video suggests incorporating vertical turbines between each floor that use wind movement to generate the power needed for the building. The problem with this idea is that wind tends to get louder as it is funneled into smaller spaces (think of how a whistle works). So the noises the wind will make as it moves between floors is going to be significant. Another issue that I'm concerned about is that the building will require redundant ventilation systems rather than allowing for some shared systems. The reason for this is because each unit will need to be self contained in order to allow rotation. By itself this isn't a big deal but they are promoting the "green" aspect of the building via the electrical wind generation, but they are increasing the green house gases through redundant HVAC systems. This could be reduced by using electrical heat and air conditioning but it will still be an increase over a traditional system that allows some areas to share infrastructure.

As I said I'm really interested to see how they deal with these issues. There is a really cool building going up in Japan where space is at an all time premium. Check out this concept for a city in the sky! It may not move (well other than swaying in the breeze every time the wind blows!!) but t incorporates parks and open airspaces based on the number of occupants. It looks like this could be one of the new trends in making buildings more "user friendly". The concept is that every 10-20 stories the center park setting (in the example it's shown as a stadium) would be repeated. The first designs indicated that the building could top 1,000 stories making it 10 times higher than anything we now build. Plans now have downsized the building to 250 stories in order to reduce the number of helicopters needed to be retrofitted with high pressure water cannons and rescue gear in order to fight fires at those heights. Still, I wouldn't want to be even that high if the building caught fire!! YIKES!!

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/skycity/interactive/interactive.html

WOW! That is truly awesome stuff. The fact that it is not only conceivably possible but physically possible to construct anything like rotating buildings and "sky cities" in the first place is amazing. With all the pitfalls that you pointed out, Jukin, if those issues can't be properly addressed today... it sure as hell will be one day. I'm audio-deprived at the moment but I watched the video and I'm sure one of the biggest innovations in constructing such a building was to keep it environment friendly, but I agree that their idea of greening probably isn't the most veracious in mind... but fix the bugs and that would be an awesome project to admire... and digest!

I looked up some other Dubai architecture stuff and found this.  I saw the partial making of either The Palm Island or The Palm Jumeirah several months ago on the Discovery Channel... very neat.

Kat that's a great site - thank you!! I have already emailed the link to some of the people I work with. Very cool stuff!! By the way was that "Dubai Deathstar" your idea? That and the iPhone building need to go away but most of those buildings look pretty damned cool! I bet you Mike Brady never came up with anything that looked like that!!

Oh in case you missed it, I give you the Dubai Deathstar : http://www.dubai-architecture.info/DUB-GAL13.htm

OK... I TRIED to say this earlier but the internet has been on and off today...

Actually Jukin... given ALL the different links to click on, if you and I hadn't clicked on the exact same link I wouldn't have had a clue what you were talking about. That's... heh... awesome.

Anyway, yeah, I was looking at that site again after I commented here and was looking at the iPod (iPhone?) looking thing and thought that it was... interesting, but I loved the Death Star building, especially INSIDE the building. 

Hey didn't you see the Brady's house back then??  They were, like, soooo ahead of their time.

Sky city - man... it would take an enormous effort to construct anything like that in the US... but daaaaaang...