Future Cities Will Move and Change Shape

Every day millions of people all over the world go to the office to work at the same location. It is another work day at the same address in the same office building. The structure may be old or it may be new, but the structure does not change. It remains constant. The building faces in the same direction and each window offers the same view to the outside.

In fact, the same thing exists in our own houses and condos, either in the city or in the suburbs. Our residence is constant, it is the same every day and does not move or change. Some people are comforted by the repetitive view of familiar surroundings in their daily lives. However, other people are pretty bored by the same bland, static buildings and surroundings that they encounter every single day. Indeed, if you fall into the “bored” category, the current planning and design for the city of the future may prove to be very exciting to you.

Consider that the city of the future will feature moving buildings that constantly change shape. Skyscrapers, buildings, condos, and even houses will constantly move to change outward appearance while giving every tenant inside a new and different perspective of the outside world with each glance through the window. For the city visitor, each new trip into town will prove to be a different and unique visual experience.

The fact is that the concept of a house in motion has already become a reality in Australia today. The Everingham Rotating House is known as a pioneer in rotating house design. The house was designed to rotate a full 360° around a central core of plumbing and electrical equipment. Computers maintain the house rotation and therefore hold complete control over the resulting outside view.

The house encapsulates many aspects of ecologically sound building principles; such as, optimizing on natural light and heat, while the rotation takes advantage of sunshine and shade at different times of the day and year. The concept of the rotating house is the result of nearly a decade of research, planning, and design, and ten months of construction over a two-year period . The house was completed in March 2006, built largely of glass and steel and powered by an electric motor about the size of an ordinary washing machine.

The only rotating multi-story building functional in the world today is in the city of Curitiba in Brazil. Architect Bruno de France has designed a tower called the Suite Vollard, which enables the individual floors to rotate around the building’s main core. All eleven floors rotate 360 degrees and each floor can spin individually in any direction. One rotation takes a full hour. So, the dining area can be turned towards the sun at six in the evening while at breakfast time, coffee and a paper can be enjoyed overlooking a view of the city center. The building was constructed and designed for residential use.

Suite Vollard has facades that are composed of double sheets of glass, in different colors (blue, gold, and silver), on different floors. The glass and color work together to give a constantly changing unique visual effect to the outside world as the floors turn in different directions.

Of course, homes and eleven-story residential buildings do not comprise most major city skylines. So, the final engineering and architectural challenge to create the city of the future is a shape shifting skyscraper set in constant motion. This is a challenge now being undertaken by Italian architect David Fisher.

Fisher is planning to begin construction of an eighty story Dynamic Tower in Dubai in the fall of 2008 that would feature revolving floors. The motion of the floors would result in a skyscraper that is constantly changing shape. The plan includes giant wind turbines to be installed between every floor. The turbines would work in conjunction with the skyscraper's solar panels to generate enough electricity to power the entire building with enough power left over to even provide electricity to some of the surrounding buildings.

The penthouse floors would have the additional feature of allowing occupants to control the rate of rotation by voice command, rotating their floor from one to three hours during a full rotation. Penthouse owners would also have the luxury of using an elevator to bring their car up to their floor in order to park it

A second Dynamic Tower for Moscow is now in the advanced design phase, with completion scheduled for 2010. The Moscow tower, will have 70 floors and be 1,310 feet tall, and will be located in the Moscow City area. A third rotating tower is being considered for New York City. Other rotating towers are in discussion for major cities in Canada, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Switzerland.

Houses, buildings, condos, and skyscrapers set in motion and changing appearance. It is the new architectural and engineering wave of the next decade. Major international cities are about to get a new and unique look. They are about to be set in motion and will constantly change shape.