Flights of fantasy

Is it like a rotating joint on each floor and will it solve the problem?

Yes, in a way. Absolutely yes, we have some of the most experienced engineers worldwide working on this. We have Boshe working on all the interface – they are the biggest developers of drive and control systems in the world. They work on missile systems, drive systems for planes and cars, moving bridges, aircraft simulators, you name it. All of our engineers are very stimulated by the challenge of doing something that has never been done before. It’s not just another concrete column but we are bringing technology that exists in other sectors into construction, and it’s about time. Technologies existing in aircraft engineering or train engineering or offshore platforms are much more complicated than what we are doing.

For each floor we will have a brush system similar to the system used for trains or subways. That’s a simple one that somebody else invented years ago.

Have you experienced any problems with manufacturing your pre-fab units?

No, absolutely not, we have only just started. In the past our associated manufacturer has shipped much bigger and much more complicated pre-fab units to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These have such complicated MEP systems that making units with just waste and hot and cold water is a joke.

You’ve also said that the tower will produce energy for itself and surrounding buildings. Can you explain how this will work?
We are going to have wind turbines between the floors and this is a challenge that we are still working on and cannot guarantee they will work because we are still in the process of developing it.

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Are you finding wind won’t turn the turbines between the floors?

Well, there are several issues such as the noise, for this we have probably found a solution but it hasn’t been completely proven. And for the other issues, I believe that the solutions will be found, but it may take a few more months to be able to say yes, everything is 100% OK. The rest of the building is going to work, no doubt, and in fact the building does not depend on wind turbine because it will be connected to the grid.

So if the wind turbine problems aren’t solved you will be powered by the grid?

In any case the building will be powered by the grid and the wind turbines will be a separate thing where we sell power back to the grid.

If the shape is constantly changing, will it be able to withstand wind loading?

Yes, of course. In places where there are storms, the building will be reshaped according to the power of the wind so that it is more able to take the wind. So if the wind was more than 100 miles an hour the floors will not be controlled by the tenants but by a computer system that will shape the building in the best way to take the load of the wind.
In Dubai we don’t have wind issues, so this will not be the case here, but we are considering it for places like Miami where there are severe storms and other places where there are severe earthquakes.

What is the driving mechanism that is going to rotate each floor?

It’s quite a simple mechanical system on each floor. I think to rotate the whole building on one system would be very very complicated, but just one floor is not a big issue.

Is it a hydraulic system?

I cannot go into details unfortunately because we have very strict confidentiality agreements with Boshe and so on.

What about maintenance of these systems, is that going to be an issue?

Most buildings don’t have any maintenance facilities, you have to break the building to fix anything, which I found to be so ridiculous. This is why I picked bathrooms years ago, which some people put as a joke, but this was in order to try and solve the prefabrication of the most complicated part of the construction of the building which are the bathrooms. It has everything – plumbing, electrical, everything you have in a bathroom system.

This was a very big challenge because also one of the issues  was to be able to do maintenance in a real time. So this building you can do maintenance for anything, for plumbing systems or electrical systems without having to break into any part of the building. And the rotation itself has a very low requirement for maintenance. It can take many years before you have to do any
maintenance.

If someone’s floor breaks down, are there any problems getting access to the driving mechanism?

Absolutely not, we have access to everything going into each floor including the normal plumbing system, the electrical system, everything – I don’t want to use a hammer on this building when something goes wrong. This is also why we believe this
building will live much longer than a normal building. Today buildings are built for between 50 to 100 years which is completely ridiculous when aircrafts fly the same number of years with much more complicated systems and risk factor, why? Because you can do maintenance to airplanes. So we are going to have a complete maintenance service to this
building.