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I think even if I am no architect that this building is not safe,, one good noreaster and that thing will be sitting on top of the city...if it were built in 3 directions it would be incredibly stable.
Not to mention the color... the city won't stand for that garish a sky line.. other wise the idea is good.
Sadly, the new era being ushered in with the end of the "Cheap Oil" era will no longer require huge bodied physically strong, high calorie demanding people, and will favor slight build, high mental activity, fast little vegans! The American West was won by a particular breed and size of human we no longer need in this computer controlled, well planned, hydraulically assisted electrically driven solar, wind, wave, hydro, tidal and geothermally powered world! Small folk take less sustenance, and maintenance, require less space, and do well on veggies and fish or eggs - no beef needed, just aquaculture and some good fish recipes. I see survival of the smallest becoming an issue in an over-sized American population, and as we speak, this confrontation is showing up in the size of airline seats. Large, heavy battleship size cars are an encumbrance to smaller folk, who can hardly see over the dashboard in some cases, and I expect imports from China to reflect the difference in physical size, North American to Asian. Vertical farms are a way to survival, but do not favor larger bodied Americans. They become Shangralai for the smaller folk, once thought valueless in the rough and rugged America of yesteryear.
Great idea, but we need to tackle one problem at a time. Building-integrated wind is a great idea, but considering the noise and vibration it produces, it's much more of an engineering problem that they should be dealing with here.
They had these in Sim City 2000 :). It was the only way to get your population well into the millions. The only trouble was that the planes tended to run into them.
That is an absolutely gorgeous building.
And Larry, I too am no architect, but if a skyscraper (a tall spike) is stable in the wind, why should a building like this not be? It might be necessary to provide ways for winds perpendicular to the wider surfaces to pass through or around the building smoothly, but other than that, stability should not be a problem.
This is just too over-the-top for me to take seriously. It's much taller than the Empire State Building, has a gigantic footprint, and has a "just throw everything in there" design.
It's not really a design as much as a fantasy. The designer knew it would never be built, so he just went nuts. I'm more interested in things that could actually happen.
That building is absolutely beautiful! But is it just me, or is it also absolutely ENORMOUS. From those photos, it looks taller than the Empire State Building. I'm not an architect either, but it does seem like there'd be some stability issues here.
"Sadly, the new era being ushered in with the end of the "Cheap Oil" era will no longer require huge bodied physically strong, high calorie demanding people, and will favor slight build, high mental activity, fast little vegans! The American West was won by a particular breed and size of human we no longer need in this computer controlled, well planned, hydraulically assisted electrically driven solar, wind, wave, hydro, tidal and geothermally powered world! Small folk take less sustenance, and maintenance, require less space, and do well on veggies and fish or eggs - no beef needed, just aquaculture and some good fish recipes. I see survival of the smallest becoming an issue in an over-sized American population, and as we speak, this confrontation is showing up in the size of airline seats. Large, heavy battleship size cars are an encumbrance to smaller folk, who can hardly see over the dashboard in some cases, and I expect imports from China to reflect the difference in physical size, North American to Asian. Vertical farms are a way to survival, but do not favor larger bodied Americans. They become Shangralai for the smaller folk, once thought valueless in the rough and rugged America of yesteryear."
Possibly the dumbest thing I have ever read.
I think it's kind of ugly. It looks like a big nose. It's a cool idea though.
This is visually stunning!
Anyone else notice how well this structure "fits in" with the rest of New York City? Sorry, I thought it was funny.
It's certainly a beautiful structure, but I really do have to question just how environmentally friendly this structure is. Sure, it's self-sufficient, it uses clean energy, and it can capture rain water, it certainly sounds green. However, I'm really curious about the initial construction costs. How much energy and cold hard cash is it going to take to turn this concept into reality?
We only have so much cheap oil left, is it worth investing that limited supply in a structure that benefits very few New Yorkers? As self-sufficient as this structure is, it probably requires some degree of maintenence like all other structures with that much steel and glass.
I'm not an architect or entomologist, but I think that's a butterfly, not a dragonfly.
That thing looks like a sore thumb. Shouldn't architecture try to integrate into its surroundings? This thing is green and brown and dwarfs anything next to it.
No figures on food production, structural integrity, or production cost (it is going to need an island created to build on right? thats not cheap nor it is anything short of a bureaucratic nightmare)...
You guys need to do a better job of noting in what stage of development these projects are.
Is the Dragonfly fresh off a graphic designer's laptop, or has this thing actually been reviewed by agriculture and engineering experts. Has it been submitted to the city? Has it even been reviewed by architectural journals or serious local publications, or has no one given this any real investigation yet?
Looks neat, but it's too gigantic. If this is 2,000 feet tall, then that would surpass the height of the former WTC, and 1 World Trade Center. It needs to be smaller, or it will stand out too much and cause some distaste among residents.
Great design and idea. Hope this will be realized soon.
By the way, what does "locavores" mean?
How can these vertical farms get enough light on every level? And isn't it mighty dark in their great big shadow?
The basic idea of growing food, etc in local high-rise neighborhoods is great, but we're dealing with multiple constraints here.
Global warming,
Peak Oil (and peak other resources),
"Peak Credit" in the US at least, right now,
all add up to: where are we supposed to get the additional resources and capital to build a new tallest building in the world? And how long would this take, and what does that imply for the length of time until payback (financial and ecological)?
This looks like a "big idea" for architects and developers still oriented towards the Trump Dynasty period in American civilization.
A more practical approach would be architectural strategies that involve retrofits to existing buildings. Part of the proof of its practicality should be this: is this supposed to be a glorious "special project", or a mass-producible strategy that becomes the norm world-wide?
This project will require a load of money and in case of successful funding will stimulate the economy as well. Will it be successfully funded? There are cheaper alternatives to build the local farms: industrial warehouses and abandoned properties. Just look at any metro area urban exploration sites (citynoise.com for example) and see that NYC is not that "horizontally-challenged" as Jerry says. Reclaiming the abandoned and decayed places will benefit the neighborhoods by making them safe and visually attractive. Warehouses are fortunately situated near the transportation routes, cargo terminals. They have space, carrying capacity and infrastructures for the production. They indeed used to be used for production ;-) Except past century they were producing goods and now they can be used to grow plants. Sunlight can be provided with the use of mirrors and reflective tubes (google for solatube/suntube). Just recall how did we light up tunnels of Egypt Pyramids during the construction.
I am an architect, and this is more childish poppycock. A building of this size can easily cost over $1 billion to construct. There is a reason that farm are located on land that cost 50 cents per square foot, as opposed to Manhattan real estate that exceeds $100/s.f., or 2000x the price.
Miilk at $8000/gallon. Well, at least it is local, well, at least during the summer.
Can you please stop posting vertical farm nonsense.
Seriously? Its own aesthetic merits aside, I don't see this thing ever being built in New York; we wouldn't stand for something so completely out of place and obstructive.
distaste? come on its beautiful! and is the way the future of building design should be going.... organic flowing shapes instead of block like samey grey and black buildings.
it's safe, obviously or they wouldn't build it. they're engineers they know what they're doing. Not only that i think that it being where they're planning on building it is a great place. Maybe it will become the symbol for saving the earth. Personally i know people who would try to save the earth more than they do just because buildings like this stand up for the earth.
This is undoubtably one of the worst things I've ever seen next to any Zaha Hadid project. I go to dozens of environmental and construction seminars and am sorry to say the general public and the current architectural environment is lost with no sense of taste or aesthetic. Good general idea, but come on, don't let embarrassements like this leave the concepting table.
This is undoubtably one of the worst things I've ever seen next to any Zaha Hadid project. I go to speak at environmental and construction seminars and am sorry to say the general public and the modern architectural environment is amuck with no sense of taste or aesthetic. Good general idea for a college project, but come on. As a company, don't let embarrassements like this leave the concepting department.
"it's safe, obviously or they wouldn't build it. they're engineers they know what they're doing."
They're not engineers, they're designers. I would doubt that much if any structural analysis has been performed on this building design, The point is moot however since it will never be built. Why anyone would consider putting fields in skyscrapers is beyond me; particularly in the States where there are such vast amounts of arable land. What annoys me about this sort of thing is that there are plenty of well-thought out environmentally friendly, sustainable ideas within concept projects like this. It would be far more worthwhile if the designers devoted their time into putting these ideas into practice by retrofitting existing buildings and consulting with projects already in development. These grandiose green skycrapers are a nice thought, but the time and money could be far better spent by developing something a little more realistic.
why not build a huge pyramid.... the safest and most space efficient way to build buildings is by tapering at the top. I don't see wind or solar integrated systems in (design flaws) this building and believe it is not forward thinking enough for my taste.
It looks beautiful, but the soloution to all the environmental problems is to lower the population, not pack the world so full of people that we need high rise farming for goodness sake!
why can't anybody see that?
I think what we are missing is the beauty. I think it's wonderful. Yes a little over the top. But I'd rather live in a city were all the buildings have some life to it like this one rather then what we have now. I mean come on you wouldn't love to live in a city that looks like something out of a fiction novel? It's ideas like this that changes us. And it's the negative criticism that makes them realize that a bit of them actually would love to see the building come true. They just don't like positive thinking anymore.
criticism is what keeps dogshit ideas from being realized. If this is a truly good idea, as in what the majority want, then it will happen. The people who go on here ranting about how this should definitely be built without looking at actual numbers or any downsides are morons.
biomimicry at it's best, abeautiful design. But like the title said - a dream.
But vertical farms will have a place in the future so let your imaginations flow!
Beautiful prospective building, but I don't think we'll be seeing anything like it on the New York skyline anytime soon.
This a very artistic drawing. Love to see it happen.
We MUST build this now with an immediate stimulus package. There should be a lawsuit by environmentalists if we do not build this immediately. And Geithner and Bernanke should stress the urgency to pass a new stimulus package. The design is intriguing with great moral potential. This is only Fed printed money involved. So just do it.
"Sadly, the new era being ushered in with the end of the "Cheap Oil" era will no longer require huge bodied physically strong, high calorie demanding people, and will favor slight build, high mental activity, fast little vegans! The American West was won by a particular breed and size of human we no longer need in this computer controlled, well planned, hydraulically assisted electrically driven solar, wind, wave, hydro, tidal and geothermally powered world! Small folk take less sustenance, and maintenance, require less space, and do well on veggies and fish or eggs - no beef needed, just aquaculture and some good fish recipes. I see survival of the smallest becoming an issue in an over-sized American population, and as we speak, this confrontation is showing up in the size of airline seats. Large, heavy battleship size cars are an encumbrance to smaller folk, who can hardly see over the dashboard in some cases, and I expect imports from China to reflect the difference in physical size, North American to Asian. Vertical farms are a way to survival, but do not favor larger bodied Americans. They become Shangralai for the smaller folk, once thought valueless in the rough and rugged America of yesteryear."
you have little person syndrome. we can all survive on roughly the same amount of nutrients.
I am always baffled by the concept of "vertical farms". No amount of construction is going to increase the amount of sunlight hitting the ground, any light entering the sides of the building simply result in that much land around the vertical farm being shaded and rentered useless for agriculture. And of course, the verticle farm can't be near other tall buildings for vertical farms, or they would shade each other. So where could we put them? The suburbs? That's hardly sustainable. Perhaps a few areas on the coasts. Even then, there is no way that the food production would offset the enormous costs.
Regardless of where, when or if this structure is "realized", I think it would be a helpful source of funding to use a portion of the tax credits (from the city/county/state it's built) purchased by companies that over-pollute.
That being said, I personally think the design is beautiful. If they can safely construct such a building, I look forward to the future of urban scenery.
Although a building like this may never be constructed exactly as it's shown above, the idea of such a concept is fantastic.
The World could benefit from more forward thinking Architects like this. The 'greening' in the literal sense of cities is an admirable endeavour and could perhaps reconnect us with the planet from which we take so much a give so little.
I for one would love to see more buildings like this enter the mainstream - how good would it be to see the Government or a large multinational company take the lead (as they seem to have al the money) and build something amazing!
I am very amused and inspired by this building. It has represented the dragonfly as a creature of extremely refined evolution into the perfect assembly of features form and color.
This is beautiful! I don't think it would be welcome in New York, but I like this design a lot better than ones I've seen before. I don't one of these is going to be built any time soon, mostly because of how much it would cost. However, I think it's a fabulous idea. This site has more info: http://www.verticalfarm.com/</p>