Design team Chimera has conceived of an incredible series of spiraling skyscrapers for New York’s Hudson Yards that are modeled after the complex ecosystems created by the mangrove tree. Dubbed Mangal City, the project is an “urban ecological system” composed of modular pod capsules that shift to adapt to environmental and contextual conditions. A beautiful example of biomimicry and certainly a flight of fancy, the plan proposes a futuristic building system based upon flexibility.
Featuring a twisting latticed frame reminiscent of Eric Vergne’s Manhattan skyscraper farms, Mangal City harnesses biomimetic principles borrowed from a range of sources. The skyscraper’s structure is modeled after mangrove trees, spiraling plant growth patterns, and the interaction of natural ecosystems.
The project was designed by Pierandrea Angius, Alkis Dikaios, Thomas Jacobsen, and Carlos Parraga-Botero and is a thesis proposal for the Masters of Architecture in Parametric Urbanism program at the AASchool of Architecture in London. According to the designers, “our vision is to define an urban ecosystem which supports housing and cultural programs and has the ability to adapt, transform, mutate and adjust according to the specific urban and social character of the site”.
Via Warren Ellis and Sucker Punch
Whoa, awesome photos and great write-up – keep up the good work!
This won’t work for London as the space is already allocated. Emerging economies such as India however will need perhaps dozens of whole new cities in the coming decades. Therein are the challenges and therein is success.
It make me think of human farms in The Matrix.
http://www.chessbrain.net/LFBOF2005/images/podpic.png
A good construction design like this can create a good quality of life
There’s a lot of light in this building! Gread project but not for England … it rains all the time….
I hope I live long enough to see it! What an incredibly beautiful addition to world-class London.
Whoa, good construction design