An ambitious proposal for a country in turmoil, this 3,780-foot building would be not only the tallest in the world but also taller than all structures currently in planning or under construction.

Composed of four connected towers, The Bride by AMBS Architects aims to exceed the Kingdom Tower slated for construction in Saudi Arabia as well as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

The mixed-use commercial, housing and office project includes a sweep veil providing shade for outdoor public spaces, parks, gardens and smaller buildings below. A net-zero structure, it is designed to produce more renewable energy than it consumes.

Its designers boast that the 1.5 million square foot structure will break new ground in engineering and vertical transportation. They also emphasize that its horizontality makes an intentional statement about inclusivity – the building is meant to serve more than just those who occupy its heights.

“Super-tall towers are perceived as an object in the distance,” said AMBS. “An alien planted in the city, disconnected from the urban scale at ground level. The Bride, on the other hand, will be conceived as a city itself both vertically but also horizontally from the ground.”

“It will be enjoyed by thousands of people in endless ways, within it, on it or under it, from walking in the vast shaded parks and promenades at ground level, to having lunch or shopping in a sky-square hundreds of metres above sea level.”

Spinning structures is not new territory, but shifting units around vertically as well as in horizontal circles is a fresh dimension of novelty with a likewise refreshed sense of purpose – to make housing truly fair for everyone, giving each person some time at (and views from) the top.

Every since the elevator shifted the top floors from being least to most desirable in cities, real estate prices have reflected the relative values of these spaces. With this alternative arrangement proposed by designer Shin Kuo, each unit would take turns being on top as well as facing each different direction.

A lot of engineering is required to make such a thing work, from detachable infrastructural connections to prescribed times and safety locks for rotation (please keep limbs inside your home!).

Part of what makes the solution so intriguing is that it conceives of architecture like a product of industrial design – something that can be fundamentally improved upon through rethinking even our most basic assumptions.

Still, at least one big question remains: given the upfront and ongoing costs of making this whole thing work, who will ultimately be able to live in such a structure, which presents itself with such an egalitarian purpose? It may simply be ahead of its time – if more modular modes of plug-and-play dwelling become the norm, such infrastructure may also come to be more commonplaces (and come down in cost).

Effectively using the same magnetic levitation technologies employed in high-speed trains, the MULTI elevator system conveys people horizontally as well as vertically without ropes and at record speeds, all while allowing multiple cars to traverse the same shafts.

Allowing fast vertical interior transit, the elevator has already revolutionized the shape of cities once – this breakthrough may enable a new version to do it again, not only cutting down on wait and travel times but also by enabling versatile sideways travel through structures. As illustrated above, a single car can go both up or down and then left or right, moving in a three-dimensional fashion within (and eventually perhaps even beyond) a given building. Imagine for a moment the trans-building possibilities: hop in a car, speed down a building and hook into an urban network running above, along or below the streets as well.

The creator of the MULTI, ThyssenKrupp AG, expects to have a fully-functional prototype by the end of 2016 (full-scale usage by 2018) with cars capable of moving at speeds of up to 16 feet per second when unoccupied. Combined, the various advantages of this system will increase elevator capacity in a given building by as much as 50% and help reduce the amount of space required  – currently, as much as 40% of a building’s footprint is occupied with traditional elevator deployments.

Whether through looping systems (like the one proposed above by Hitachi) or maglev technologies or, most likely, a combination of the two, the “days of one cabin, in one shaft on one rope traveling up and down” which “hasn’t changed for 160 years” are soon to be over. Imagine the possibilities for architects and engineers no longer constrained to simply building up but now free to build out in fresh new ways as well. Of course, Star Trek turbolifts aside, there are always some potential dark sides to new technology, as science fiction films like The Cube and Cabin in the Woods have explored, but presumably the ups outweigh the downs, so to speak.

Buildings are forever in tension, being static objects in a dynamic world – light conditions in particular shift predictably yet variably throughout the day, week, season and year, in turn demanding an adaptive response.

Thus the Penumbra system by Tyler Short, “designed to offer a kinetic and mechanical solution to a problem that would otherwise be nearly impossible to solve with static architectural components: providing shading across a building facade for both low evening sun and high afternoon sun conditions.”

The constituent parts can shift side to side while in their vertical orientation, then turn on a proverbial dime to form a horizontal shading solution, all creating a way to deflect (and let in) light while maintaining control over views.

More from the designer: “Our solution was a series of vertical shading louvers, that can independently pivot to maximize solar protection, and when the sun reaches an altitude in which vertical louvers would be ineffective, completely rotate upwards to act as a horizontal shading element and light shelf. All of the mechanical components and gear ratios were fully resolved, and the result is a hand or computer-operated system that creates a beautiful undulating form across the facade.”