• What hotel is being built inside a former rock quarry?
When will the first kilometer-tall tower be completed?
From towers above the clouds to rooms under the water, here are 10 of the craziest future
buildings being built as you watch this.
10 – The Dubai Pearl • Dubai has become one of the most opulent
areas in the world, and it is home to some of the most ambitious constructions projects
going on today.
• The Dubai Pearl is one of those projects that might be a little TOO ambitious.
The building consists of four towers, each 73 stories tall, all connected at the top
by a skywalk, kind of like a giant table.
• The massive residential project is currently under construction, but it has run into a
number of problems.
It's over budget and over deadline at a relatively early stage, and some wonder if the project
might be cancelled entirely.
9 – Agora Garden • Unlike many of the buildings on this list,
the Agora Garden isn't just for apartments, businesses, or tourists.
• It is, literally, a vertical farm.
Every one of its 22 floors is packed with trees, suspended orchards, hanging medicinal
herbs, aromatic gardens, and other plant life.
• The twisted design is meant to maximize the ability of each floor to catch and use
rainwater and runoff from upper floors, minimizing the amount of irrigation needed.
• The building is also intended to let the building grow most of its own food.
But on top of that, it is expected to absorb about 130 tons of carbon dioxide every year,
putting a considerable dent in Taiwan's impact on global warming.
8 – World One • Mumbai, India is one of the most densely-populated
cities in the world.
And when cities are densely-populated, they start building up, to allow more people the
ability to live near the city center.
• That's the idea behind World One, a 117-floor tower that will be the second-tallest residential
tower in the world upon its completion.
• Some apartments offer a fitness center and a swimming pool.
World One has those, plus a spa, a pavilion, and a cricket pitch.
7 – The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbor • If it finishes construction soon, the
Tower at Dubai Creek Harbor could be the tallest building in the world – at least for a little
while, until number 1 on this list takes that title.
• At 928 meters – or 3,044 feet, the massive observation tower is set to be completed in
2020, just in time to be the centerpiece for Dubai's 2020 Expo world fair.
• The purpose of the tower is primarily tourism.
It isn't going to contain any apartment buildings or office space – but it will have 10 observation
decks and a room with a 360-degree view of the city.
6 – Cobra Tower • There are two “Cobra Towers” currently
under consideration, but at this point, both are really just concepts and nothing more.
• One, in Kuwait, is a spiral design generated and proposed by a CGI firm.
It's a cool design, but not all that snake-like.
• The other is a proposition from a Russian architect to build a tower that literally
looks like a cobra, with a nightclub in the head of the snake.
• His project is called the “Asian Cobra Tower,” and he is waiting for someone in
the Middle East or Asia to show enough interest in the design to build it.
5 – Dawang Mountain Resort • What a beautiful hotel.
• For those not content to simply visit a winter sports resort on the side of a mountain,
here's a resort that looks like an alien spaceship landed BETWEEN two mountains.
• This resort has two distinct sections – the first is a 100-meter tower of shops
and hotel rooms, known simply as the “Five-Star Hotel Tower.”
• The other is the “Snow and Ice World,” a massive indoor park spanning two mountains,
including an indoor ski slope and water park, among other things.
4 – Pearl of the North • This 568-meter commercial skyscraper will
probably be most notable for the “pearl” design at the top of its tallest tower, the
Baoneng Shenyang Global Financial Center.
The “pearl” alone is expected to be about 50 meters in diameter.
• But that's only the headliner for what is a huge complex.
• The complex in general will include five residential towers, each about 200 meters
tall, standing above a massive shopping mall.
3 - Suzhou Zhongnan Center • This megatall skyscraper is set to be
the tallest building in China at 729 meters.
• It is expected to have 137 floors above ground, five below ground, 1,500 parking spaces,
93 elevators, 706 apartments, and 276 hotel rooms.
• Its construction has run into some bumps, but it looks to be on track for completion
in 2020.
2 – Songjiang Hotel • For all the huge towers and skyscrapers
being built in the future, here's basically the exact opposite – a hotel being built
100 meters below ground level.
• The hotel is being built into the side of a former rock quarry, so despite being
underground on three sides, there will still be windows for actual sunlight.
• If you're feeling extra adventurous, you can try one of the bottom two floors – those
ones will be underwater.
1 – Jeddah Tower • Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is set to be the
proud owner of the tallest man-made structure in the world.
• In 2020, they will complete construction on the Jeddah Tower, formerly known as the
Kingdom Tower.
• The tower will be the first in the world to stand a kilometer tall, and even that was
a compromise.
The initial plans were to have it stand almost twice that height, before engineers told them
that just wouldn't work.
What's the craziest building you've ever seen?
Tell us about it in the comments below, and we'll pin our favorite to the top.