Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid : Amazing Structures

The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a project proposed by the Shimizu Corporation of a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay in Japan. The structure would be 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid at Giza, and would house 750,000 people. If built, it will be the largest man-made structure on Earth. The structure would be 2,004 m (6,575 ft) high and would answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space.

Founded in 1804, Shimizu Corporation is a leading architectural, engineering and general contracting firm and is one of the 5 largest contracting firms in Japan with annual sales of $14 billion USD. The structure proposed by Shimizu is so large that it cannot be built with currently available materials, due to their weight. The design relies on the future availability of super-strong lightweight materials based on carbon nanotubes.

The pyramid's foundation would be formed by 36 piers made of special concrete. The perimeter of the foundation above ground would be 2,000 m (6,562 ft). The area of the foundation is 8 km². Infrastructure would consist of an area of approximately 25 km². The complete gross building area wold be about 88 km².

Because the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire cuts right through Japan, the external structure of the pyramid would be an open network of mega trusses, with supporting struts made from carbon nanotubes to allow the pyramid to stand against (or let through) high winds, and survive earthquakes and tsunamis.

The trusses would be coated with photo voltaic film to convert sunlight into electricity and help power the city.

Large robots would assemble the truss structure, and air bladders would be used to elevate trusses above the first layer using a construction system proposed by Italian architect Dante Bini. This pneumatic process is partially based on the Binistar general technology. Spheroid nodes at the connections between trusses would provide structural support and serve as transfer points for travelers.

Transportation within the city would be provided by accelerating walkways, inclined elevators, and a personal rapid transit system where individual driver-less pods would travel within the trusses.

Housing and office space would be provided by 30-story high skyscrapers suspended from above and below, and attached to the pyramid's supporting structure with nanotube cables.

In terms of layers:

• Layers 1 to 4: residential, offices, etc.
• Layers 5 to 8: research, leisure, etc.

The height of each layer is 250.5 m (for 8 layers, the pyramid would be 2,004 m tall).

The pyramid structure would be composed of 55 smaller pyramids stacked five high. Each of these smaller pyramids would be about the size of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.

The building would be zoned into residential, commercial and leisure areas. 50 km² will be given over to some 240,000 housing units, enough for 750,000 people. Each building would have its own energy resources (sun and wind). 24 km² will be assigned to offices and commercial facilities intended to employ 800,000 people. The remaining 14 km² would be used for research and leisure purposes.

(Information comes courtesy of the Wikipedia amongst other sources.)