That tongue-in-cheek ‘world’s longest skyscraper’ design we highlighted last week seems totally reasonable compared to a new proposal taking the competition for the world’s tallest structure to absurd heights: The Analemma Tower literally dangles a skyscraper from an asteroid. An actual asteroid, orbiting the Earth. The design is firmly in sci-fi territory, with the renderings resembling matte paintings made for ‘70s and ‘80s movies set in space, but the architects offer details as to how this could actually work.

Clouds architecture Office envisions a space-based supporting foundation, noting that NASA has planned a 2021 mission to capture and redirect an asteroid. Of course, NASA’s budget is up in the air right now, and who knows what’ll happen to the United States’ space-related endeavors by then. The asteroid would be located about 31,000 miles above the Earth’s surface, with the tower using what the firm calls the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS) to hang the multi-use tower via super-strong cables.

The portion of the tower that sticks up above the Earth’s atmosphere will host an extraterrestrial cemetery, with the three sections below it designated for ‘devotional activities.’ The architects say these portions of the tower wouldn’t be attractive to live in due to “extreme conditions,” though they’d benefit from an extra 45 minutes of daylight each day. The residential area is fairly small in comparison, set just above the garden and agricultural section, an area for offices and business activities, and a transfer station with dining, shopping and entertainment options.

Analemma would get its power from space-based solar panels, with water filtered and recycled in a semi-closed loop system and replenished with condensation captured from clouds and rain. It could be placed in an orbit allowing it to travel between the northern and southern hemispheres on a daily loop, with its slowest trajectory occurring over New York City so people can get on and off. They go into some detail on these technicalities on their website.

“Manipulating asteroids is no longer relegated to science fiction. In 2015 the European Space Agency sparked a new round of investment in asteroid mining concerns by proving with its Rosetta mission that it’s possible to rendezvous and land on a spinning comet. NASA has scheduled an asteroid retrieval mission for 2021 which aims to prove the feasability of capturing and relocating an asteroid…”

“Analemma Tower is a proposal for the world’s tallest building ever. Harnessing the power of planetary design thinking, it taps into the desire for extreme height, seclusion and constant mobility. If the recent boom in residential towers proves that sales price per square foot rises with floor elevation, then Analemma Tower will command record prices, justifying its high cost of construction.”

There’s lots of competition for the title of world’s tallest skyscraper, but does anyone care about the world’s longest – even when it extends vertically into an upside-down U shape? If you were to take ‘The Big Bend’ and straighten it out to stand on one end, it would extend impossibly high into the air, especially for how skinny it is. But architecture studio Oiio seems to be poking some fun at architectural norms and ‘luxury’ at the same time with this fictional structure.

Designed to fit into New York City’s Billionaire’s Row, a controversial set of super tall, ultra-luxury residential skyscrapers that tend to block views and cast shadows into Central Park, The Big Bend wonders whether the prestige of an absurdly high structure still exists when it’s bent in half. It maintains roughly the same dimensions as a super tall structure, so does that mean the developers can charge as much for the apartments inside as they would if it extended all the way up into the clouds?

The tongue-in-cheek design repeatedly references the Monopoly-style, top-hatted caricature of a billionaire in its renderings, and the firm’s statements about their proposal reveal a frustration with the way buildings in this echelon are designed, regulated and priced.

“There is an undeniable obsession that resides in Manhattan,” says the firm. “It is undeniable because it is made to be seen. There are many different ways that can make a building stand out, but in order to do so the building has to literally stand out. We have become familiar with building height measurements. We usually learn about the tallest building and we are always impressed by its price per square foot. It seems that a property’s height operates as a license for it to be expensive. New York City’s zoning laws have created a peculiar set of tricks through which developers try to maximize their property’s height in order to infuse it with the prestige of a high rise structure.”

“But what if we substituted height with length? What if our buildings were long instead of tall? If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules in New York, we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan. The longest building in the world. The Big Bend can become a modest architectural solution to the height limitations of Manhattan. We can now provide our structures with the measurements that will make them stand out without worrying about the limits of the sky.”

After a few years of recession-induced stalling, record-smashing skyscrapers are going up around the world at a steady pace, knocking each other out of the top positions every year or so. While Dubai’s Burj Khalifa has held strong as the world’s tallest building, a number of new super-tall structures have sprouted up in the last two years to claim titles as the tallest in various cities and hemispheres, and a few proposals that are almost too tall to be believed aim to surpass the Burj by 2020.

432 Park Avenue, New York City

The tallest residential building in the world stands at 432 Park Avenue, topping out at 1,396 feet of exclusive condominium apartments. Completed in December 2015, the building is the third-tallest building in the United States and the second tallest building in New York City, behind One World Trade Center and ahead of the Empire State Building. It’s expected to be equaled in height by the 111 West 57th Street project in mid-2018. The video above documents the construction of the tower over the course of the entire building process.

MahaNakhon Skyscraper by Ole Scheeren, Thailand

Pixelating in two sections along the way to its 1,030-foot-high pinnacle, the MahaNakhon tower by Ole Scheeren is a striking new addition to Bangkok’s skyline. Located in the city’s central business district, the tower is Thailand’s tallest building and contains a public landscape plaza, retail center, 200 serviced apartments and a 150-room boutique hotel.

The Tower in Dubai by Santiago Calatrava

Famed architect Santiago Calatrava announced this year that he has been chosen to design and build the world’s tallest building, set to surpass the Burj Khalifa. Planned for Dubai Creek Harbor, ‘The Tower’ is a landmark observation structure offering panoramic views across the city from ‘The Pinnacle Room’ and observation garden decks attempting to recreate the legendary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The tower will also contain a luxury boutique hotel, and is expected to be completed in advance of Dubai’s turn hosting the Expo 2020.

Grand Tower, Germany’s Tallest Residential Skyscraper

Germany’s tallest residential skyscraper is set to send 400 floors of high-end residences straight up into the sky of Frankfurt, creating a new urban landmark. The height of the tower will far surpass that of Germany’s provost tallest residential structure, the Colonia-Haus in Cologne. The penthouses at the top will enjoy wraparound glass-walled balconies gazing out onto the city.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Recent Record Breakers 12 Legitimately Sky Scraping Tower Projects

Edging out the record-holding Burj Khalifa by just a hair, the world’s tallest tower is set to rise into the Dubai skies by 2020 as the crown jewel of a new waterfront development. Neofuturist starchitect Santiago Calatrava, known for dramatic sweeping structures with complex engineering, won an international competition to design the as-yet-unnamed superstructure offering panoramic vistas of the city in February, and new images and details have just been released.

Taking design inspiration from the contours of a lily flower, the tower features Calatrava’s signature illuminated cables stretching from its length to the floor of the plaza. Floor after floor of luxury boutique hotel rooms lead higher and higher into the air, topped with the ‘pinnacle room’ observation space. Lushly planted decks envisioned as recreations of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon offer additional views.

The shimmering spire is meant to be a landmark for Dubai Creek Harbour, a new district that developers hope will become a trendy new residential and leisure destination for the city, and a new tourist attraction completed in time for the Expo 2020. It’s a flashy addition to Dubai’s many flashy projects, from those that have actually been built to those that have been squashed and abandoned. Calatrava calls it “a symbol of an abiding belief in progress.’

Since so many of Dubai’s announced projects never actually get off the ground, it remains to be seen whether this tower will end up snatching the crown from the 2,722-foot-tall Burj Khalifa, a mega-tall skyscraper completed in 2009 as part of another large-scale mixed-use development.

Your head spins, your stomach clenches, your heart pounds furiously. You’re thousands of feet above the ground with nothing but glass keeping you from teetering over the edge in a lengthy and final fall. Do you have the guts to look down? Hundreds of feet in the air, these 13 tower platforms and observation decks – often with transparent floors – offer absolutely breathtaking views of cities like Shanghai and landscape features like the Grand Canyon.

Burj Khalifa Observation Deck, Dubai

(images via: unique buildings, mithunonthe.net, le grand portage)

You’re never going to get a higher vantage point from a free-standing structure than that attainable at the Burj Khalifa observation deck in Dubai. Unless, that is, somebody builds a structure even taller than this world-record tower, which reaches half a mile into the air. The observation deck is on the 124th floor of the Burj Khalifa (formerly known as the Burj Dubai) and on a clear day, it provides absolutely jaw-dropping views of practically the whole of the United Arab Emirates.

Stockholm SkyView at the Ericcson Globe

(images via: globearenas.se)

You’ll literally feel on top of the globe when you hitch a ride in one of the glass ‘gondolas’ at Stockholm Skyview, a moving observation deck that travels up two sets of rails on the exterior of the Ericcson Globe Arena in Sweden. Each gondola can take 16 people over 426 feet into the air for an unforgettable view of the city of Stockholm.

Top of Tyrol, Austria

(images via: aste architecture)

Virtually invisible against the snow in the winter, ‘Top of Tyrol’ was designed to blend seamlessly into its environment and provide a vantage point that most people couldn’t achieve without some serious mountain climbing abilities. Designed by Aste Architecture, Top of Tyrol cantilevers nearly 30 feet out from the pinnacle of Austria’s Mount Isidor, about 10,500 feet above the ground.

Shanghai World Financial Center, China

(images via: kanegan, bernt rostad, le grand portage)

Before the Burj Khalifa came along and shattered all kinds of records, the observation deck at the Shanghai World Financial Center was about as high as it got. The glass observation corridor, which spans the summit of the building, is half a kilometer in the air – but the faint(ish) of heart can still get a thrill by checking out lower decks on the 94th and 97th floors instead.

Five Fingers Viewing Platform, Austria

(images via: goldenrochs.at)

Get five different views with five different features in each jetty of ‘Five Fingers’, a viewing platform in the Austrian Alps. The first has a picture frame for souvenir shots, the second a glass floor for that vertiginous feeling, the third a trampoline for the foolhardy (this one is only open for special events, lest tourists bounce themselves right over the cliff), the fourth a hole in the floor to peek through and the fifth, a telescope.

Sands Skypark, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

(images via: marinabaysands.com)

On the top of three skyscrapers, 656 feet in the air, Singapore boasts a 1,246-foot-long rooftop deck by architect Moshe Safdie offering an incredible view of Marina Bay. The curving Sands Skypark is shaped like a ship and equivalent in size to the Eiffel Tower laid on its side. Among its most notable features is a 150-meter-long infinity swimming pool, which makes guests feel like they could swim right over the edge.

Landscape Promontory, Switzerland

(images via: etienne deffinis, architonic)

Designed by Paolo Burgi, Landscape Promontory is a suspended metal platform that almost looks like an insanely oversized, modern version of a carnival ride – except that it (thankfully) doesn’t move. The viewing platform extends out from Cardada mountain in Switzerland and is marked with symbols and explanations that tell of local history and literature.

Willis Tower Skydeck, Chicago

(images via: charlotte speaks)

Step out onto the deck of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower ‘Skydeck’ – an enclosed balcony made almost entirely of glass – and you’ll feel, for a moment, as if you’re about to hurtle to a rather unpleasant death on the streets below. Or perhaps, if you’re the brave type, the height won’t phase you at all and you’ll just be completely entranced by an unparalleled, uninterrupted view of the Chicago skyline.

Aurland Lookout, Norway

(images via: todd saunders)

You know that stomach-clutching, heart-in-your-throat sensation you get on roller coasters just as you’re coming up to the edge of a terrifyingly steep drop? That moment is drawn out indefinitely at the Aurland Lookout in Norway, a stunning wooden overlook that puts nothing but a sheet of plate glass between you and the countryside below. Designed by Todd Saunders & Tommie Wilhelmsen, the minimalist structure celebrates the region’s natural beauty and exemplifies its spare, modern design sense.

Eureka Skydeck, Melbourne

(images via: eurekaskydeck.com)

They named this thing ‘Eureka’ for a reason – it’s about the tamest exclamation that would emerge from your mouth as you walk out onto it. As you look down through the glass floor, you become acutely aware of the fact that you’re nearly 1,000 feet above street level. Jutting 9 feet out the side of the building, the Skydeck offers the highest public vantage point in a building in the Southern Hemisphere.

Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona

(images via: vistor.com)

Stepping out onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk is probably the closest you’ll ever get to walking on air. The U-shaped walkway, considered quite a feat of engineering (or an over-developed eyesore, depending on your viewpoint), extends 66 feet from the canyon’s edge and its two-inch-thick glass floor lets you gaze down 3,600 feet to the canyon floor below.

House on the Rock Infinity Room, Wisconsin

(images via: panaramio, gadling)

As you emerge from the cluttered depths of one of America’s most bizarre roadside attractions, The House on the Rock, you can clear your head on a cantilevered viewing platform that extends 218 feet over the forest floor. Once you reach the end of the ‘Infinity Room’, which has 3,264 windows, you can look out the final pane of glass, which is set into the floor at the tip.

i360 Tower, Brighton, UK

(images via: e-architect.co.uk)

England’s Brighton Beach will get a 600-foot needle tower with a circular glass viewing platform that can hold 125 people, following years of delays. The i360 Tower – which might get a name change by the time it’s complete – is set to become Britain’s highest observation tower, granting 360-degree views of the coast.