During Japan’s economic bubble during the late 80s and early 90s, lots of big corporations proposed outlandish, futuristic buildings. These corporations did this for two reasons: one, to plan for a future with a huge population density; and two, to be awesome.
A lot of the time, these skyscrapers seem like something out of Popular Science than a building you’d run across in a major city, and in fact most of these fantastic skyscrapers never even made it past the drawing board, or were even really meant to. Koichi wrote about the absurdly large X-Seed 4000 a few years back, and that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.
So enjoy this Japanese building porn (no, not that kind) as we take a look at some of the tallest, coolest, most absurd proposals.
Aeropolis 2001
Not only did the Aeropolis 2001 have a sweet name (2001? That’s like, the future!), but it was also enormous. The skyscraper was planned to stand at 2000m, or five times the size of the World Trade Centers and about twice as tall as any skyscraper in existence today.
Aeropolis 2001 was planned by the Obayashi Corporation in 1989 to tower over Tokyo Bay, but hasn’t really panned out in the 20+ years since then.
The tower was planned to be a mixed-use building, housing both apartments and offices, with an elevator shuttle that would take 300 people to the top of the tower in about 15 minutes.
I can’t imagine what moving day would be like for people living in a building a mile and a half tall, or how a fire drill would work.
Around the same time that Obayashi announced its designs for the Aeropolis 2001, it also declared its plans for a city on the moon, but it sounds like the Obayashi moon city is just as likely to be built as the Aeropolis 2001.
DIB-200
DIB-200 stands for “Dynamic Intelligent Building” that’s 200 stories tall, a name only the Japanese would use. The DIB-200, planned by the Kajmia Construction Corporation to be built in Tokyo, was envisioned as basically multiple skyscrapers stacked on top of each other and the end result looked kind of like one of those giant trophies you get for winning a pee-wee soccer tournament.
The bottom couple of layers would have offices, the third tier would be for hotels, and the very top tower would be home to some very swanky apartments. A series of super-fast elevators would take people from one level to the next, and in between each level there would be stores and cafes.
Its final height would have been around 800m, slightly shorter than the Burj Khalifa, the current tallest skyscraper in the world. A little less grand and fantastic than some of the other proposed skyscrapers in this post, but one of the more goofy-looking buildings.
Shimizu Super High Rise
The Shimizu Construction Corporation is not only one of the biggest construction companies in the world, but also loves its concept designs. Shimizu has cranked out several conceptual buildings in the last couple of decades for – from what I can tell – no real reason other than to spark people’s imaginations.
In terms of supertall skyscrapers, Shimizu planned a building called the Shimizu Super High Rise, or SSH. At the time it was planned, it was to be the tallest skyscraper in the world and Shimizu wanted it to be the smartest, too. An advanced computer system was supposed to protect the building from fires, earthquakes, and anything else you could throw at it.
But Shimizu didn’t stop there. The company has continued to crank out fantastical designs for buildings and cities in the years since, creating plans for some buildings that might come right out of Blade Runner.
Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid
Shimizu’s coolest conceptual building is probably the MEGA-CITY PYRAMID, a name that only feels right to write in all caps. It’s a giant pyramid made out of giant, floating skyscrapers. It would be 14 times taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. It would be all held together by transport tubes that would take people from one skyscraper to the next.
The whole thing would sit right in the middle of Tokyo Bay, because it would be easier than buying up the land needed and razing everything to the ground.
Green Float
Just last year, Shimizu announced the concept of a “Green Float,” a system of floating, self-sustaining cities in the ocean, located near the equator.
You can check out a video of a Shimizu designer talking about the project:
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So which one of these is your favorite? Tell us in the comments.
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