Floating Light Park Skyscraper Uses Solar Power and Helium to Hover Above Pollution-Choked Beijing

<a href="http://www.evolo.us/featured/light-park-floating-skyscraper/">Light Park</a> is a skyscraper that hovers over the streets of Beijing like a giant airship. Architects Ting Xu and Yiming Chen have conceived the future of high-rises to be a conglomerate of mega-structures that make up for the shortage of urban open spaces on the ground by lifting them up in the air. The Light Park skyscraper is lifted off the ground with a helium-filled balloon, and it uses solar energy for propulsion, enabling it to function as a non-polluting transportation deck as well as a floating urban park. The project just took third place in the <a href="http://www.evolo.us/category/2013/" target="_blank">eVolo 2013 Skyscraper Competition</a>.

Light Park is designed to provide infrastructure, housing, commercial and recreational spaces free from Beijing’s traffic congestion and air pollution.

It is a dystopian city which leaves the over-populated, smog-choked city behind and seeks to start from scratch.

The mushroom cap-like structure takes the future of urban development to the sky, offering Beijing’s residents a chance to escape the crowded city.

. It uses solar-powered propellers, airbags and atmospheric pressure for take-off and cruise flight.

Solar power is utilized to power the uses below, with translucent solar panels located on the top of the aircraft.

In order to avoid additional weight and decrease wind resistance, the skyscraper uses a cable-suspended structure to attach the slabs to the mushroom-like cap.