Why bother with space elevators, when you could be staying in a skyscraper that is suspended from an orbiting asteroid? Clouds Architecture Office’s latest project, called “Analemma,” is a skyscraper powered by space-based solar panels, and is capable of capturing water in a semi-closed loop system that draws from the moisture in clouds and rainwater. How does it work? Well, a large orbiting asteroid is first set on a figure-eight geosynchronous path that moves between the north / south hemispheres on a predictable daily loop. The skyscraper would then suspended from the asteroid using a high-strength cable, enabling residents to parachute down to work when the orbit slows, and gets closest to midtown Manhattan. Continue reading for more pictures and information.
“The proposed building is split into four main areas: business activities at the lower end of the tower, sleeping quarters placed approximately two-thirds of the way up, prayer rooms at the very top of the building, and surface transfer points at the bottom. The tower would be prefabricated in Dubai – which the architects say is ‘a specialist in tall building construction at one-fifth the cost of New York City construction’ – and the modules transported and assembled above earth,” reports Inhabitat.