15 Mind-Blowing Skyscrapers (PICTURES)

From Inhabitat:

With world populations growing and land scarce, more and more architects are looking to build upwards instead of outwards. Want some visual proof? Check out this collection of incredible vertical farms, bio-fuel power plants and skyscraper cities showcasing some truly innovative ideas on how to rethink what urban landscapes should look like. It just might be a glimpse into our future!

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The laminated wood skyscraper is an interesting concept envisioned for Brazil, where deforestation is such a crippling issue. Using laminated wood construction, Tomas Kozelsky, Patrick Bedarf, and Dimitrie Andrei Stefanescu showcase the ultimate in sustainable design for the heart of the Amazon.

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The laminated wood skyscraper is an interesting concept envisioned for Brazil, where deforestation is such a crippling issue. Using laminated wood construction, Tomas Kozelsky, Patrick Bedarf, and Dimitrie Andrei Stefanescu showcase the ultimate in sustainable design for the heart of the Amazon.

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Lame My Mind Is Officially Blown

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Comments

[aligatorhardt]

02:06 PM on 04/16/2011

The first picture looks like it was built by drunk monkeys. some of the buildings are interesting. I would not want cows outside my window and I would not want to live in an old coal mine. But vegetables and fruit on terraces would be nice.

[wonmean]

06:16 PM on 04/15/2011

Yay, more concept art headlined as actual skyscrapers.

[fireofenergy]

10:47 AM on 04/14/2011

3-D cities would make possible almost unlimited population (and allow a few more Einsteins to be born) necessary to make cheap expansion into space possible. We may not like the idea of living in giant buildings (that employ electric minicars and spiraling ramps that replace today's bloated and WAY over resource demanding arcane roadway system), but our children probably will rather leave the massive landspaces in between such 3-D metropolises to wilderness and recreation areas (like dirt biking, motocross, golf, archery, metal smithing, and bird watching, because computer gaming will be just too boring)!

The energy required to do this dream of mine... Hmmm, Solar can support about 10 billion people AT THE AMERICAN STANDARD if just less than 1/50th of ALL landspace was covered. This includes the 4 times extra required for storing.
Using thorium in molten salt reactors, Humanity would be able to power 100 billion "wasteful American's", no prob! The resulting nuclear wastes decay to acceptable "safe as lead" levels in just 300 years (not some 300,000 years), and require no dangerous cooling ponds. Infact, the amount of thorium needed to power YOUR ENTIRE LIFE averages out to be the size of a golfball, which wastes are just 1/100th of that!

Retro-enviros need to realize that there is a much better way than clinging to (and trying to just conserve within) the fossil fueled depletion scenarios of the ill informed past!
(Not to put down the people of the past).

[aligatorhardt]

02:08 PM on 04/16/2011

Great idea, built up a city then abandon it from nuclear contamination-not! Keep the city and leave out the disaster power plants.

[Brigette]

03:06 PM on 04/13/2011

When I saw the one with the tiny pastures with the cows, I almost burst into tears. If it comes down to that, it's pointless. Let's save our open land rather than plan what to do after we destroy it.

[pzureick]

12:23 AM on 04/16/2011

I think you are missing the point. These skyscrapers are being proposed so humans and our agriculture won't take up all "our open land." The hope here is that urban sprawl and deforestation to make way for agriculture and grazing (the cows you mention) will become a thing of the past. It may surprise you to learn, but cattle aren't a natural part of the environment and the destruction of natural habitat to make room for pasture is a major ecological problem. These concepts are being put forward precisely to "save our open land rather than... destroy it."

[aligatorhardt]

02:09 PM on 04/16/2011

Can you imagine cows stepping off the edge? Lookout below!

[BMBTHC]

09:05 AM on 04/13/2011

That slideshow was kind of depressing. It just reminded me that there are too many people on the earth and instead of doing something about it we are just fantasizing about high capacity dwellings with gardens.
We started out with a high capacity dwelling with gardens called the earth, but I guess the iEarth will be an improvement. I'm just wondering where we will plug in the iEarth when we want to recharge it?

[vtvita]

08:18 AM on 04/13/2011

More misleading, deceptive, headlines.
These weren't skyscrapers.
They weren't even pictures of skyscrapers.
They were architectural drawings.
This is an example why HuffPo sucks.

[GoodbyeRubyTuesday]

02:49 PM on 04/15/2011

These are concept pieces of - skyscrapers; HP actually states 'innovative ideas'.
What's the problem?

[Vaalea D]

05:53 PM on 04/17/2011

yeah... are these concepts by architechural ENGINEERS? Are they at all feasible even if we had the will and resources?? meh.. I once did a project in elementary school where I designed my own island, and it had winter on one corner, and summer on the other. Drawing and imagining something doesn't make it possible...

[Vgman]

06:03 AM on 04/13/2011

Interesting designs, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

[Ramkshrestha]

05:14 AM on 04/13/2011

What about these?
http://ramkshrestha.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/skyscraper-rotating-buildings/
http://ramkshrestha.wordpress.com/2010/10/27/eight-of-the-worlds-strangest-houses/
http://ramkshrestha.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/hand-build-an-earth-sheltered-house-for-5000/

[harmonyus]

12:18 AM on 04/13/2011

overblown title. Nothing was mindblowing

[Thinkster]

11:52 PM on 04/12/2011

These are interesting ideas, but I find them all depressing - the idea is that we can continue to allow our world population to increase without limit, and somehow we'll find the natural resources required to build these monsterous constructs smacks of utter hubris.

We need to deal with our population issues without destroying the planet - doesn't look good, does it?

[BMBTHC]

09:18 AM on 04/13/2011

Mr. Thinkster. Exact same impression, had I.
Loved Star Trek and all the solutions they had (but like all TV, nobody ever goes to the bathroom), but so far technology has only led to more people and less connection to nature. I'm not impressed that technology is the answer, it appears to be more of a marketing gimmick. The answer is, as you suggested, less people consuming less stuff. But I'm pessimistic. It looks like we are hardwired to want to reproduce as much as possible. Capitalism seems to be based on this so-called "growth." All business models are based on increase. Most religions seem to be based on increase. Unless we fundamentally address market driven society and revive the Shaker religion, I don't see a way out of this mess. At some point (which is already here) the earth starts to actively try to get rid of us. So far we haven't taken the hint, we just keep planning a big party for when we hit 10 billion, by designing groovy WallE-esque buildings. Joke's on us.

[Thinkster]

10:23 AM on 04/13/2011

Malthus might have been one of the first to really understand - another depressing read!

[moutonnoir]

11:17 PM on 04/12/2011

Having literally just gotten home from a long day helping our at SOM... I have to say - i am skeptical anything even close to any of these designs will be built any time soon.

but they are awesome designs. a few are really awesome..

[NonConforming]

10:06 PM on 04/12/2011

Interesting that the last book in the bible also projects increase in vertical construction in a the current capital of Israel. The city is described as a 1,000 mile pyramid - the ancient symbol in many ancient cultures.

And (the angel) showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. .. 15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia[c] in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits[d] thick.[e]

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+21&version=NIV

[KIVPossum]

04:26 PM on 04/12/2011

Anyone can pull out paper and present a fancy, unworkable idea.

This has as much to do with reality as The Cites of The Future articles in popular mechanics in the 50s

[Neville Ross]

05:19 PM on 04/12/2011

Those articles at least showed that people had HOPES for the future instead of FEARS, like most of the left-wing seems to have.

[Thinkster]

11:47 PM on 04/12/2011

Thanks to the right wing, I'm afraid.

[moutonnoir]

12:28 AM on 04/13/2011

please, do elaborate on this right wing future you imagine...

all i see is mushroom clouds and internment camps.

[moutonnoir]

11:18 PM on 04/12/2011

not 'anybody'.. c'mon... most people literally cannot do anything creative... nothing.. not even make jokes.. these are definiately special designs from talented people...

dosent mean they are going to be built, or are even meant to be built...

imagine if you showed a picture of burj dubai to a 1930s audience...

[lowery2008]

01:15 PM on 04/12/2011

I like them. Too bad we have to be over populated and not have enough resources. In my perfect future the problem is solved is strict population control laws. Like one child per family in China but global.

[mdemploi]

12:04 PM on 04/12/2011

It's sad these students start with the preconception of an overcrowded future, with scant resources; billions of lives completely dependent upon unecessary complexity.

[moutonnoir]

11:19 PM on 04/12/2011

urban issues are urban issues.