A group of architects from a New York-based firm have proposed hanging a skyscraper (literally) from a controlled asteroid using high-strength cables. With elaborate concept art, Clouds Architecture Office has explained how it aims to suspend the so-called Analemma Tower from an asteroid, which will be placed in geosynchronous orbit with the Earth.
However, if you want to leave the building, say, for some fresh air, you would need a parachute. Visitors will also need special protective suits to enter or exit the tower and parachutes to come back to ground level.
This, the architects said, will allow the tower to travel in a figure eight loop between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres every day. So the skyscraper will return to exactly the same spot in the sky daily. While the asteroid will orbit the Earth at 50,000 km above the surface, the building will be positioned around 32 km above the surface.
Also, given how humans do not fare well at such altitudes, the size and shape of the windows will change between floors based on changes in pressure and temperature. The architects have proposed generating electricity for the tower using solar panels and collecting water from cloud condensation and rain.
The building will be divided into a number of sections – businesses will occupy the lower floors, residents will live two-thirds of the way up, and the higher floors will be meant for “devotional activities”.
This infographic gives an idea of the scale of the proposal:
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