During Dubai Design Week, architect and professor Dr. Georges Kachaamy presented an eye catching project that questions architecture's need for the ground. Through his project, "Rising Oases," Kachaamy proposes a future where individual buildings are no longer tied to their "daily restraints," including the need to be firmly anchored to the earth.
According to the Dubai Design Week website, "The structure is suspended in the air using breakthrough technology, providing visitors with an outlet to disconnect from the city." Part of an ongoing research project that has been in the works over the past decade, according to a recent report from CNN, Kachammy's project, which uses magnetic levitation technologies to levitate scale models above their bases, stunned the design week attendees.
Some might view his proposal as implausible, but according to Kieron Monks of CNN, Kachammy is prepared to win over those who doubt the project's feasibility. Monks reports, "Kachaamy first conceived of floating architecture as a student in Japan 13 years ago, and the quest has become increasingly serious. For the past five years he has been steadily increasing the size of his models."
In order to create these models Kachammy uses an ultra-light plastic and 3D printing techniques to create models that are outfitted with magnets that allow the structures to float as if by magic. The architect shares with Monks, "You have to find an equilibrium between the weight of architecture and the strength of technology," he says. "Then you can achieve greater heights and more impressive prototypes."
So far, Kachammy has been able to craft prototypes that float a few inches above their bases, a distance the architect plans to increase with forthcoming experiments.
Brilliant. High effort to create low-tech, mediation on slow living and novel cooking. Assuming magnets are the emerging tech, I betting the resulting field will damage electronics as you approach the building, so you be forced to live a twisted analog dream. However, induction cooking will be achieved by using exercise bicycles or rowing machine installed on the lowest level of the structure.
All 8 Comments
Ants the size of humans! Humans the size of ants! Everything scales!
It’s all just theater. In this case, children’s theater.
And we wonder why the layperson's view of architects is a joke.
Play on.
There have been millions of structures that have hovered above the ground since civilization began. They are called "boats" and "ships". Most even self-propel, some with wind only. How green is that?
On the bluer side of green, mostly.
And who will occupy these levitating building? I will venture a guess that it will be vacationing Russians, specifically ones that take the train from Moscow to their dacha in the Crimean peninsula. Given that the toilets on Russian trains are really smelly, most travelers learn how to "hold it all in" for the duration of the train ride.
Also, with the author conceiving of floating architecture thirteen years ago, that places him about seventeen years behind Lebbeus Woods, who declared - a generation ago- that we will one day "find a cure for gravity".
I guess it will be possible with the infinite supply of cheap oil that Dubai has. Oh wait, the oil is running out too. They could build a structure that is levitated, solely lifted up by migrants slaves (I mean laborers)
The end result of a PhD in architecture: a mountain of bullshit.
To his credit it has been reduced to hilariously lame talking points with a couple of buzzwords (‘natural materials’, ‘rewire’, etc.) that can be read and dismissed in under a minute.
Man gets paid to present a poorly rendered, lazily imagined "project" in all seriousoness. What a dream.
Brilliant. High effort to create low-tech, mediation on slow living and novel cooking. Assuming magnets are the emerging tech, I betting the resulting field will damage electronics as you approach the building, so you be forced to live a twisted analog dream. However, induction cooking will be achieved by using exercise bicycles or rowing machine installed on the lowest level of the structure.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.