Doesn't 3 33,000 super districts only equal 100,000 people?

Also, it looks like one of those cat jungle gyms.

Massive Oblong Dwelling is Overtly Grotesque

I actually love the idea, though the punctured swizzle stick look leaves a bit to be desired.

Now if there was only some kind of assurance that a structure like this would mean that more green space could be created, and not just create more room for urban sprawl.

Paging Judge Dwedd (sic.) Mega Tower One is now open for business.

Didn't Niven and Pournelle already write this, "Oath of Fealty"...?

I can't imagine living in a building with that many people much less the thought of what would happen if there were a fire or a terrorist attack or the like. Talk about mass chaos.

Looks kind of creepy, somehow. Does it whistle when the wind blows, like a giant Toot Sweet(from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)?

Arcology, from the words "ecology" and "architecture,"[1] is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures, which are themselves commonly referred to as "arcologies," would be self-contained, contain a variety of residential and commercial facilities, minimize individual human environmental impact, and possibly be economically self-sufficient.

@Crystal: how is that different than a normal city? fires and terrorist attacks have always caused mass chaos whenever they occur around masses of people.

Were the holes added to make it 747-proof?

With something that shape and that long sticking out of the ground something tells me Capt. Jack won't keep Torchwood in Cardiff for long.

@OldDog1: Congratulations, you quoted Wikipedia. You must be so proud. Although you could at least have removed the citation numeral.

@braak: You beat me to it. It does look like a cat scratch tower.

But you couldn't pay me to live in that thing. 100,000 - One Million People in that close of a proxity, it doesn't take a terrorist just somebody with a strong enough bass driver/ subwoofer at 3 am to cause a riot that would tear that thing down.

@tetracycloide: Well, the exit routes for a city I'd imagine to be a little simpler than the exit routes if you were living on, say, the 1,036th floor.

@Gann: bad planes.

Looks like a giant cigarette--being vaporized!

You have plenty more ways to evacuate a normal city. In a vertical building, there's one way out.

Honestly, arcologies will never happen, because nobody wants to live like that, not by choice. In real life, these things are Kowloon Walled City, not some Dubai paradise.

Uhmm.. how many floors is it? That'd be a sucky elevator ride.

Two words: airplane magnet.

@braak: what could be simpler than issuing every citizen a chute and enrolling them in a safety course on base jumping?

seriously though, the idea that a 'normal city' is easier to evacuate is not entirly accurate. take d.c. for example, if canada invaded and everyone in the city had to evacuate or face the mounty death squads i'm sure a good 80% of the city would try and get out by motor vehicle on 95. the bottle necks are still there, they're just less obvious.

@MaxTwice: Its London chap..That means it's a giant fag.

@tetracycloide: If Canada invaded nobody would be able to go anywhere because we'd be laughing to hard and saying, "Awe thats cute that you tried. Thanks though, we needed a reason to have 51 states."

Sweet. Arcologies are fun.

@Crystal: Judging by the design, the terrorists will miss even if they fly the plane straight at it.

"How convenient/scary!"

Scary indeed.

@Daveinva: "because nobody wants to live like that, not by choice" I think the point being that eventually overpopulation will be such a problem that there won't be a choice. But yeah, not anytime too soon, but soon enough on a grander scale. Leveled cities. Both interesting and terrifying.

@Daveinva: Are you kidding? Most of Seoul is already one big indoor/outdoor mall. If everything's close and convienent and the roof's high enough, I can see people only leaving to take a vacation in another arcology.

@Garrison Dean: Just so long as they bring their poutine with them. And their universal health care, which we'll need after the poutine.

What about the thousands of people scared of heights? I'm generally not afraid of heights, but this tower scares me. I don't like this one bit. Of course most of the people afraid of heights don't have to live there... I just... er... I don't like this one bit.

And yeah, I can just see chaos starting, some terrorist attack or something, and people start freaking out. Sure a terrorist attack in a city is going to cause a lot of chaos, but at least your not over 1,000 ft. in the air (Feel sorry for the people at the very top!). Even if you issue every citizen a chute and set up courses for safety doesn't mean they're going to remember most of that in emergency situations. Then you got thousands of people with babies, children, and animals trying to all parachute down at the same time. Doesn't paint a pretty picture in my mind.

*hugs the ground*

It's doesn't look safe at all. Seems like a place that I would totally avoid

I would totally jump at the chance to live in a well designed arcology. No need for private transportation, everything conveniently close to home, clean & well maintained.
A definite improvement on a large number of areass I've called home.

In order for a million people to want to live there and not care/forget about imminent terrorist attacks, the design of the thing has to be sexy. I'm thinking..shaped like the Jolly Green Giant.

@tetracycloide: Hmm, I guess that's a fair point.

Manhattan, likewise, would be insanely difficult to evacuate.

Of course, if you got bottlenecked on the Schuylkill trying to get out of Philadelphia, you could pretty easily just get out of your car and start walking.

Imagine your surprise when you buy a unit for a couple million Ameros on the 500th floor, and some upstart firm develops a building right in front of your view that's 10,000 feet tall.

@Rus McLaughlin: Their little leaf shaped maple-sugar candy could cripple our children within a week.

I love that people feel that we are running out of room in this world... Clearly these people have never driven between the Mississippi and the Pacific ocean. Granted, I'd take a mile tall super tower over it any day, but its there for people who want room. You just don't get to have wifi, coffeeshops, and Apple stores on every corner.

@Garrison Dean: Aw, I'd imagine we could manage to carve out more than just one state from the bounty an ass-whooped Canada would provide the US. Shoot, I think at least as many provinces as they currently have. We could have sixty or more stars!

Wow. Everyone is a gorram expert in teh internetz. Didn't it occur to any of you geniuses that they have already thought of everything and are solving/already solved it?

I'm glad this is still just a concept, cause I certainly don't like the way that looks either. Needs some more work.

@Garrison Dean: Yeah, but you see, you missed the point: we're not running out of room in the WORLD we're running out of room in the CITIES, as in the places of greatest commerce and economic opportunities.

As far as Canada, never underestimate the underdogs. They may seem peaceful, but its all a front! They're pulling the wool over our eyes so that they can strike with great effectiveness!

@braak: well we can't all live in the boondocks now can we?

@Rus McLaughlin: seoul was an very enjoyable place to live from an accesability and diversity standpoint but it is probably the last place on earth i would ever want to vacation at. there is very little to do there outside servicies that provide the regular inhabitants with practical utility. it's a very stark contrast between that and a city like, say, paris or d.c. where a very large portion of the space is occupied by sites of historic or artistic interest.

@Bob_of_Mars: That made sense 20 years ago, but in the age of the interwebs, information and commerce is available to all with a phone line. A giant building like this will only prevent overcrowding in a city if these people never leave it.

@Garrison Dean: More likely, that evil maple sugar candy would turn our kids into Canada's hyperactive slave army, to be used against us. Gentlemen, we cannot allow a maple sugar candy gap!

@tetracycloide: That's a funny coincidence, because it was the last place on earth I wanted to vacation in, too, but I did it anyway. And man, was that some culture shock after Japan... had its moments, though.

This is absurd. We've seen plenty of examples of this failing on a small level. Any public housing project (basically anything called 'the Projects') has been considered a hotbed for criminal activity. Has anyone heard of Corviale? Its a joke now. We can't possibly progress if we keep making the same architectral mistakes!

@tetracycloide: Laugh now, but who's the one who's going to escape the Mountie death squads?

Impressive, but can it launch into outer space?

@burddog: that's far more intrinsic to the culture than it is to the actual architectre. downtown seoul bares many similarities with this model and the crime rate in the seoul is among the lowest on the planet for major urban centers and fairs even better after you factor in the population density.

Am I the only one who immediately thought of Doctor Who with this? The Doctor visits places like this from time to time and they invariably suck. They are full of killer robots or cannibalistic grannies or have basements full of huge crabs. I can't imagine that they will be much better in the real world, although they might not have the giant crabs.

@burddog: Well, I think the Projects usually fail less because of their design, and more because we tend to fill them with the poorest people we can find.

Actually, I liked it better when Robert Silverberg wrote about it in The World Inside

Urban Monads - you heard it there first!

(and god bless daddo, god bless mommo, god bless everyone!)

@m_faustus: Everybody in England already has crabs.

Every suicide in Eurpoe who can afford a Chunnel ticket will flock here.
"aaaaaAAAAAAAA!!!"
*S*P*L*A*T*
"Bloddy tourists."

If...IF...something of that scale was actually built, the method of vertical transportation it required would more than likely be switched off/shut down in case of an emergency. Whether it be high speed elevators or a spiralling train system that wound up the building (or even Futurama pneumatic tubes or Star Trek teleporters) chances are most if not all of that stuff would get switched off (or reserved for use by certain members of the society...emergency crews, police, govt officials). Everyone else would have to take the stairs...or know how to work a parachute.

Maybe helipads around the perimeter at certain locations...but yeah...ultimately...lots of stairs.