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MegaLondoner Arcology Fantasized
UK company Popularchitecture is proposing to house all of the folks who will be moving to London town in the next eight years - all one million of them - in a single building.
(London million super tower)
This fanciful tower has an empty core space, to provide more light for the interior spaces.
(London million super tower detail view)
There are many advantages to housing a large number of people in a relatively small space; far less energy is needed in every aspect of life. American suburbs, by contrast, are built with the assumption that energy will always be a negligible cost.
The London supertower is just a fictional exercise at present - and I think if you're going to make something up, you should go to the guys who are good at it. In this case, read about the arcology in Oath of Fealty; Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven did a great job of imagining a building two miles on a side. They didn't dream up the idea of an arcology, but they really brought one to life.
Take heed, Londoners.
Via io9 and Popularchitecture Supertower.
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