Wind Powered Rotating Skyscraper
Residents of Dubai may one day experience a unique and constantly changing skyline thanks to Dynamic Architecture’s wind powered rotating skyscraper. The main idea behind their concept involves a central concrete core surrounded by 59 independently rotating levels. The skyscraper would generate its own electricity from the massive horizontal wind turbines that would be stacked in between each floor. This idea may seem outlandish or impossibly expensive, but the oil price boom in Dubai has already funded many other similarly massive and complex architectural projects. If oil prices continue to increase these rotating wonders may be seen on Dubai’s horizon within the next few years.
YouTube: Dynamic Skyscraper | More Videos
Innovative Architect
The rotating towers are the vision of Dr. David Fisher, an accomplished Italian Architect focused on designing “Dynamic Architecture” or “Designing buildings that can adjust themselves to the needs of its inhabitants.” Fisher has been involved in building restoration projects in New York and is currently working to develop revolutionary construction technologies. Fisher’s designs are built in the factory and assembled on site, significantly reducing the construction time and number of workers.
Revolutionary Construction
The first phase of construction will take about six months. A central concrete core is erected to house important static amenities like elevators, staircases, plumbing and other utilities. This is the only part of the project which must be built on site. The 12 individual units that make up each floor are prefabricated in a factory in order to ensure safety, cost effectiveness and quality control. Each unit is self-contained and includes all necessary electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning. Units are hooked on to the building and hoisted up to the top of the tower. It takes one week to rotate the entire floor into (watch the construction animation). The tower is effectively built from the top-down. The fact that each unit is independent and moves with the wind ensures a much higher resistance to earthquakes.
Self Powered Architecture
Neatly stacked in between each floor is a horizontal wind turbine (58 in total). Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity and is said to be able to produce enough energy for 50 families. The turbines are integrated in such a way that they are hardly visible from the outside. Their close proximity makes them easy to maintain. “Producing that much electric energy without any implication on the aesthetic aspect of the building is a revolutionary step in tapping alternative energy sources.” Dynamic Architecture’s website also claims that combined with solar panels they could generate up to $7million worth of surplus electricity every year.
Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity, compared to 1-1.5 megawatt generated by a normal vertical turbine (windmill). Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy. As average annual power consumption of a family is estimated to be 24,000 kilowatt-hours, each turbine can supply energy for about 50 families. The Dynamic Architecture tower in Dubai will be having 200 apartments and hence four turbines can take care of their energy needs. The surplus clean energy produced by the remaining 44 turbines can light up the neighborhood of the building. However, taking into consideration that the average wind speed in Dubai is of only 16 km/h the architects may need to double the number of turbines to light up the building to eight. Still there will be 40 free turbines, good enough to supply power for five skyscrapers of the same size.
Another Concept
There is no construction date. We’ve listed a few links and forums topics here for further research.
Loading …Dynamic Architecture Homepage
Press Releases
Forum Discussions
May 15th, 2007
This method of making every other floor into a wind turbine seems an expensive way to produce electricity. It would require doubling the height of the building and I think the additional costs would not warrent this type of construction.
I think that a more practical way of using wind power for a building would be to use only the top floors of the structure to generate power since the wind velocity is higher at greater elevation.
adrianakau@aol.cm
July 5th, 2007
This is amazing, I want this to be the future.
November 5th, 2007
They probably use every other floor to cut the torque on the building in general. Using the top floors only would put tremendous stress on the central core.
November 5th, 2007
This is so cool. I want one of these apartments! However, you will obviously require to be mega rich. I am also interested in the islands of Dubai - the world islands. They are also extremely expensive. Dubai is such an exciting country at the moment, and indeed in the future, architecturally wise. It will be interesting to see how these concepts will develop.
March 19th, 2008
The speed that this modular building can be built and the number of less people working can more than save the money needed to pay for the turbines plus they will pay foy themselves in electric energy production.
April 24th, 2008
It’s great. Functional, beautiful, and exciting architecture. The center tower can be designed to take wind load on it. And upper floors could be shaped to have more semi-circles, that can further increase wind speed at what look like Savonius wind turbines between floors. And power yield can be further maximized with smart power electronics.
June 16th, 2008
This is a great concept, and a step above the one in Bahrain. This is what I call as a win-win case. The energy is clean which means that there is no pressure on our natural resources and wind energy is free.
The challenges of changing wind direction will be well addressed by the self adjusting design. The designers must have also calculated the energy needed to rotate the slices of the building, because that will be over and above the 200 households they plan to support. The wind may help in rotation, but there need to be ample control to prevent a fast rotation and extra rotation. The residents, otherwise, would experience earthquakes several times a day.
Overall, this is a great concept and the positives outweigh the negatives.
June 25th, 2008
This is the most ridiculous idea I have ever seen. I once worked in a revolving restaurant and have seen my share of sick people. It took 54 minutes to make a full rotation and guests still managed to lose their sea legs… and appetizers.
I’D LOVE to see a tower of this size filled. Instead of a trash chute will there be a vomit chute to collect in the basement for removal? Just be sure it’s properly labeled. No-one wants to vomit in the same shoot they direct their dirty laundry to.
June 25th, 2008
How do you get off an elevator onto a spinning floor?
June 25th, 2008
I don’t like it. If you have no control over your condo spinning… this can get really annoying… really fast! If you do, I’m sure your neighbors would be annoyed if you are spinning when they are trying to sleep. Hah. This is so ridiculous. They forgot about the human factor.
Also, Dubai is messing with mother nature. Think about how the palm islands and world islands have affected marine life and the natural ecosystem.
June 25th, 2008
I love the fact that the building is powered by wind. And what about a generator in the event the building needs to be stopped? My question is, what about when very high wind stormy/hurricane weather conditions occur? Will this make the skyscraper spin super fast? Is there a way to control the building and switch the building “off” in the event inclement weather conditions occur?
June 25th, 2008
I have worked with rotating couplings for electricity, they tend to fail rapidly due to arcing, I cannot imagine doing that for water and sewage. The building would spray waste and water like a great sprinkler.
All bearings are wear points. How do you repair/replace the worn or broken parts on this without dismantling everything below the broken part?
What is the rate of motion, and is it controlled or based on the wind speed?
How is it controlled?
Isn’t that a lot of expense to add to a building just to have a nauseating novelty?
How do you repair it when it fails for a particular floor?
I love the concept of the windmills between floors, loose the spinning and you have a winner.
June 25th, 2008
I really hope they make every other of those wind turbines counter-rotate, or else the core will have enourmous stress once they all start spinning at full speed! (The video showed them _NOT_ counter rotating, which makes me worried)
Cool concept though..
June 26th, 2008
Rotating turbines? And I thought my AC unit turning on outside my window was loud. This is a hoax.
June 26th, 2008
It actually is planned to be constructed…
And planned to be finished by 2010…
June 26th, 2008
Huge turbines between floors. That should be nice and quiet!
June 27th, 2008
The idea is amazing and I’m convinced that it is possible.
June 27th, 2008
Moving floors with turbines between each of them? It may look cool, but will probably be one of the noisiest buildings ever, especially as it ages.
June 29th, 2008
By the way…..how will an elevator be fitted in this building and then even if the elevator is fitted, how will a person come out of it. the elevator fitted in this case should be also spinning the opposite way the building is spinning and at the same speed, and then spinning elevators…..oh my god, a person will come out of the elevator completely dizzy, this building concept is fail, fail, fail. And then, looking out of the window and changing views….ooof. Liza is right…. in storm conditions or if hurricane or tornado occurs, the buildings gonna rotate in the tornado at may be 1000 turns in a minute…..And what about if earthquake occurs. Usually earthquakes rotate everything when occur and and what about the rotation when the building is only rotating. Even it will be very noisy in future. What about the iron bars inside the building and core, they will get completely twisted and break the building in a minute or so. By the ways is the ground floor also rotating…..if so, then this is a complete hoaxxx… My conclusion is never build this building……..and if some f***er builds it, it’s gonna get demolished by itself very soon……..
July 1st, 2008
It’s a great architectural idea for a building also supported from the chance to be an alternative one producing electricity from wind!!! I hope for all its best!
July 2nd, 2008
This seems like a far fetched idea and many people bring good points up on the topic of nausea but don’t forget it takes a week to rotate 360 degrees. Its not like an ultra fast moving tower and each floor movement is controlled individually. To me this seems like a perfectly logical and achievable engineering and architectural challenge although pricey. But who has more money to spend on this then the oil barons and their billions of dollars?