A Groundbreaking Development

When in Dubai, land of a thousand and one dreaming billionaires, do as the local developers do: overdo Everything. Home of architectural indulgences like the world’s largest indoor snow park (coolly situated on the sun-drenched main boulevard), the city’s soon-to-be-completed Skyscraper of skyscrapers, the half-mile high Burj Dubai, is the first of six 100+ story buildings to decorate the desert sky. For a shock-and-awe perspective, one only has to look to Chicago, with only two such towers and a third on the horizon. Additionally, the Sears Tower, at its tippy-toes top, is still 900-odd feet shorter than the Burj’s projected height. Let’s hope that the moneyed man at the top of the Burj is comfortable with not seeing the earthlings below.

Dubai’s most recent announcement, however, reduces the rest of its upward expansion to mere background. On Tuesday, plans were unveiled for an eighty-story, shape-shifting skyscraper--the “world’s first building in motion.” Each floor of the aptly named Dynamic Tower will be able to rotate independently (via wind turbine power) and each takes only a week to assemble because they are composed of prefabricated units. The efficient, environment-friendly process, in turn, requires far less manpower and, in some small way, mediates Dubai’s notoriously exploitive labor practices. A possible red flag, though, could be the fact that lead architect David Fisher doesn’t have an accredited architectural degree.

Yet, if finished, the future of architecture will come at a steep price (say $4-$40 million for an apartment). Similar towers are also being discussed for Moscow and the original monolithic city, New York.

Check out the oasis-like computer rendering here.