Gearfuse

We thought everything was bigger in Dubai.

Santa Monica building designer Tommy Landau created a model for a 224-story supertower which could one day stand in Abu Dhabi. Hell, the model itself is almost as tall as a man. The structure, aside from far eclipsing the 2,600 ft. Burj Dubai, would be coated in solar cells which would allow the building to power itself. The building will house over 11 million square feet for offices, shops, hotels and condominiums (but no farms that we know of). An early concept of the building includes a large clock at the same height as the Empire State Building would reach on the building.

The project is still under consideration by the Abu Dhabi powers that be, though if approved the $3.5 billion project would likely not be underway for several years to come. I imagine it takes a massive amount of planning and bureaucratic cajoling for a project like this to even break ground

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Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates has a vacant plot of land which will be used to hold “Masdar City,”  the first city to rely entirely on solar energy. The transit system will be much like the robotic taxi-cab in Total Recall, sans self-destruct mechanism. The system consists of a fleet of solar-powered programmable vehicles that seat six which will keep the streets free of congested traffic.

“You program what station you want to go to, and [the vehicle] will directly take you to that station . . . If you look at things like Blade Runner, etc., that we had 15 years ago, it’s really bringing that to the fore now,” says Scott McGuigan of CH2M Hill, the construction firm that’s building Masdar City.

Masdar City is bringing Blade Runner to the fore? No one wants to live in a city full of replicants, even if it’s eco-friendly. Someone better call Deckard to fix this mess before it gets out of hand.

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