This idea is simple- Make a REALLY BIG pyramid out of glass(kinda like the Luxor Pyramid in Las Vegas,) but then give it a large base and make it a skyscraper for office space or corporate headquarters etc...

The pyramid would have to be steep for this idea to work. So i'm guessing it will look like a cross between the luxor pyamid and the transamerica building (see links.)
-- croissantz, Jul 18 2004

Tokyo's Sky City http://shopping.dis...rel_productId=38703
Not yet built, but as shown in the Discovery Channel program, Extreme Engineering. For a *really* ambitious project, investigate the details regarding the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid also planned for Tokyo, but suspended above the ocean. Extreme Engineering did a fascinating hour on this, too. [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

The Luxor Pyramid http://images.googl...ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN
Kinda like this, but a lot taller. [croissantz, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Like the Transamerica Pyramid? http://www.meridian...raphy/Architecture/
[half, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

http://www.halfbake.../Gyro_20Achitecture http://www.halfbake.../Gyro_20Achitecture
[half, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Pyramid Office Building http://www.aidan.co.uk/photo1473.htm
To be found in Stockport, Greater Manchester [oneoffdave, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Memphis Pyramid http://www.sfo.com/...m?Memphis/index.htm
"The 32 story [all stainless steel] Pyramid is the third greatest pyramid in the world and soars even taller than the Statue of Liberty or the Taj Mahal." [jurist, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Glass pyramid http://www.louvre.f.../palais/ipyrami.jpg
[half, Oct 05 2004]

Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK) http://shapeofdays...._ryugyong_ho_1.html
How about a 105 story hotel with a 75 degree slope? Did I mentioned it has been sitting, unfinished, for over a decade? Read the odd story here. [krelnik, Nov 10 2004]

I'm all for pyramid skyscrapers - The Tyrel corporation had a pretty good one in Blade-Runner - and as a way of getting the maximum light into a building, a sloped structure is likely to work out quite well.
-- zen_tom, Jul 18 2004


i'm for this and think it would look immensely cool, but isn't the whole point (at least a big one) of a skyscraper to fit the maximum square footage in the smallest footprint?

any geometry whizzes want to figure out how big the base would need to be to reach the hight of sears tower etc?

for *really* extreme engineering have the apex as the footprint.
-- xclamp, Jul 18 2004


This really isn't much of a new idea. So many sci fi books and films feature great glass elevators, sorry, pyramids. And the Egyptians were doing pyramids way back in, well, Egyptian times. And simply describing new shapes for buildings seems a little uninspired.

Now, an *inverted* pyramid, with a reasonable explanation of how it will stay up in a hurricane (or with fifty terrorists pushing with all their might), I'd go for that...
-- DrCurry, Jul 18 2004


Nice aesthetic, but a waste of materials. Cones are very inneffiecient.
-- 5th Earth, Jul 18 2004


4 inverted perimades like this:

top veiw:
,<>-<>,
'<>-<>'

Side veiw:
\/'''\/
-- my-nep, Jul 18 2004


There, it'll stay up. (those are connecting beams)
-- my-nep, Jul 18 2004


[5th Earth], since when is a pyramid a cone?
-- zigness, Jul 18 2004


[DrCurry] how's this for reasonable? With a brief anno by FarmerJohn about inverted pyramids. [link]
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 18 2004


How would this differ from the Transamerica building in San Francisco? It's a skyscraper, it's a pyramid...I guess it's not made out of glass, but it has plenty.
-- half, Jul 18 2004


//REALLY BIG pyramid out of glass//

This sounds very fragile to me.
-- Pericles, Jul 18 2004


[Zigness], a pyramid is a cone in the same way that a square is a rectangle.

Cone is the broad term for objects with a base of an arbitrary number of sides, where each vertex of the base is shared with two triangles (each triangle taking two adjacent vertices of the base), and the remaining triangle vertices all meet at a single point. An infinite number of sides on the base means a circle or ellipse or other closed curve. A "Pyramid" is a cone with a square base. Get it?

A square cone, or pyramid, is the second most ineffecient common shape for enclosing space, assuming the base is a regular polygon--the only shape that is worse is a triangular cone. This means that to enclose a given volume of space, you'll have to use more surface material than nearly any other common shape you could make the building.
-- 5th Earth, Jul 19 2004


whats the most efficient?

(I'm predicting already that this is a stupid question... but sometimes they are the best ones to ask)
-- etherman, Jul 19 2004


A sphere encloses the most volume per unit of surface area.
-- half, Jul 19 2004


<edit> [half] just beat me </edit>
The 3d shape with the highest ratio of volume to surface area is the sphere, which is why bubbles are that shape. Given a base which is a regular polygon, I would guess that it would be the Euclidean solid with that base having the greatest number of sides, assuming that such a solid exists, because that would be the closest to a sphere (regarding a sphere as a Euclidean solid with an infinite number of faces).
-- angel, Jul 19 2004


Sorry, I got the wrong link to a picture of the Luxor Pyramid (see link). Just fixed it today.
-- croissantz, Jul 19 2004


A pyramid on top of a column is called an obelisk.
-- Freefall, Jul 19 2004


[Freefall], my cat's breath smells like cat food.
-- contracts, Jul 19 2004


Fun fact: A geodesic sphere 1500 feet in radius can be made (with real materials) so light compared to the air inside that a temperature increase of just one degree inside the sphere will make it float. Upgrade the sphere to a mile in diameter and you can build a city full of people in it. The people inside will generate enough excess heat that no energy need be expended to keep the sphere flying.

This idea is called "Cloud Nine" and was half-baked by Buckminster Fuller. But it's a nice example of surface-to-volume ratios taken to extremes.
-- 5th Earth, Jul 19 2004


Yes, but non- heat giving items (e.g. furniture) will cause problems. Bottom line: Sizzle sizzle sizzle.
-- croissantz, Jul 19 2004


Its like human bacon. (I bet it wouldn't taste good.)
-- croissantz, Aug 20 2004


Inverted pyramids? That doesn't really sound reasonable does it? I mean, why would we waste time trying to build pyramids upside down when we could easily build them right side up? I know it may take more space, but do you really trust technology enough to hold 4 gigantic pyramids up(upside down) and be able to trust them with thousands of peoples' lives?
-- DunkinDonuts, Nov 10 2004


Is there a canonical right side up for pyramids? After all, there isn't one for a cube, or sphere.
-- bristolz, Nov 10 2004


If you wanted to choose any height for your pyramid skyscraper and make it exactly the same shape as the Great Pyramid, the base sides would need to be:

base side = chosen height X (10/9) X sqrt2

The same formula can be used to calculate the centrepoint - diagonal dimensions at regular heights, thus enabling accurate control of the pyramid shape, without the apex for reference.

Just like the Ancient Egyptians did, except they used 99/70 instead of sqrt2.
-- seamus, May 11 2005


Just to look interesting I like the idea of four quarter pyramids joined at the top, sort of likr my_neps anno, except cut off on the cube.

Oh and the most efficient format for enclosing space in terms of perentage of volume caputred is different from in terms of surface area. In this case it is anything that can be regularly tiled. Thus triangles, squares, hexagons, and combinations of higher orders (octagons and squares mixed). In terms of buildings, since we don't build one on top of the other this actually means a prism with this shape as the base.
-- MechE, Sep 17 2007



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