Manhattan is packed with towers, but the city still has height restrictions in various neighborhoods.
As a way to get around these mandates, New York firm Clouds Architecture Office has proposed an outlandish skyscraper that would hang from cables attached to an asteroid. Since the tower wouldn’t touch the ground, the designers say it would bypass maximum height restrictions. (Regardless, it’s doubtful the city has considered zoning laws for a floating building.)
Called the Analemma Tower, it would be the world’s tallest building – though, of course, there are no plans to construct it. Ostap Rudakevych tells Business Insider that the firm created the design to imagine what could be possible in the future.
Take a look at the proposal below.
The Analemma Tower would be constructed in Dubai and then float to New York City, where it would stay.
It would hang from an orbiting asteroid at approximately 105,000 feet above ground level, which is near the border of the stratosphere and mesosphere.
Offices would populate the lower two-thirds of the building, while residential units would be on the upper floors.
Since the tower wouldn't touch the ground, the firm also sees the design as a way to avoid floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
With current technology, the tower's construction is not possible. "I would love to see it built, however I don't think I'll be alive when it happens," Rudakevych says.
Those who would live there would have spectacular views, he adds.
"As architects we're trained to imagine things that will exist in the future. For example, when we design a house, we are drawing and rendering something that doesn't exist until it's built," Rudakevych says. "We're very interested in what the future might look like or feel like."
