I propose to build a skyscraper downwards. Maybe use a disused mineshaft. Obviously the view out of the windows would be pretty abysmal and so I propose to build a tower above the skyscraper onto which I would mount HD cameras at an elevation above ground corresponding to your depth below it. These are connected to giant HD TV sets replacing your windows such that (apart from the eriee feeling that you get when the elevator goes down when you think it shuold be going up) you do not know that you are not up in a high building.
In fact, with the dawn of the interwebs you could chose where to have your apartment - Your 'windows' could be connected to a tower in Hawaii or even Paris!-- Karnuvap, Sep 11 2007 Underground City Subterranean_20Civilization...which may well be the idea I was thinking of. [DrCurry, Sep 12 2007] World's first 'ground-scraper' hotel https://www.abc.net...n-shanghai/10510522 [xaviergisz, Nov 19 2018] We're gonna need a bigger building... https://imgur.com/gallery/kVijn6r [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 21 2018] Why not just one camera on a tethered balloon so that everyone can have a penthouse view?-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 11 2007 You get what you pay for. (Near to the-)ground floors are cheaper than the (basement) Penthouses.-- Karnuvap, Sep 11 2007 Build them at sea - avoids the need to excavate.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 11 2007 Why couldn't you do this with conventional high-rises? Particularly in a crowded downtown core where your 20th floor view might simply be 3 other skyscrapers.
There would have to be some monitoring of choices for the "windows" so the perv on the 13th floor doesn't look out into a girls dorm somewhere.
I'll have mine scrolling through a sunny summer day in Vancouver, a crisp fall morning at Niagara Falls, sunset over a snowy Whistler Mountain, and springtime in Halifax.-- Canuck, Sep 11 2007 //a crowded downtown core where your 20th floor view might simply be 3 other skyscrapers.// This gives me an idea...-- MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 11 2007 I've read about this in books before--science-fiction, mostly. I recall one where the "window" was the screen of a film-type projector, and the film burned, melted and broke in the middle of a conference--to the folks who didn't realize what was happening, it looked like the end of the world.-- baconbrain, Sep 11 2007 Plasma screen TVs are everywhere now. They are windowlike. What is needed are highdefinition webcams in picturesque areas to provide the feed for plasma screen windows.
I could imagine unused plasma screen TVs defaulting to this as a sort of screen saver. It would be nice to watch the progress of the sun over the mountains as you went about your business.-- bungston, Sep 11 2007 I am sure that someone posted this idea before, although I cannot now find it - probably lost in one or other account deletion or server crash.
Oddly enough, building downwards does not remove the problems you face in building up - structural safety, emergency exiting, power and light, air supply. Add in that most people get claustrophobia living underground, and the whole thing becomes unattractive.-- DrCurry, Sep 12 2007 Not really a skyscraper though, is it? Going to have to have a new name.-- Noexit, Sep 12 2007 dirtscraper? holescraper. how about wormscraper?-- k_sra, Sep 12 2007 Mantle Piercer.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Sep 12 2007 The main reason that I got this idea was to avoid another 9/11 type incident.-- Karnuvap, Sep 13 2007 "Sir, one of our tunnel diggers has just been hijacked." "My god, if we don't do something in the next 72 hours it'll be carnage."-- marklar, Sep 13 2007 And the fire escape goes where?-- the dog's breakfast, Sep 13 2007 Down. No wait, up. Yes that's it, up. That was a tricky one, I really had to think about thaT.-- marklar, Sep 13 2007 Sorry. To clarify - If there was a fire at ground level (or near to) the people on the floors below do what?-- the dog's breakfast, Sep 13 2007 aren't they all "ground level?"-- k_sra, Sep 13 2007 Hellscraper.-- nomocrow, Sep 13 2007 Buttscraper?-- DrCurry, Sep 13 2007 buttscraper? you sure you annoed the right idea, [drc]?-- k_sra, Sep 13 2007 // If there was a fire at ground level (or near to) the people on the floors below do what? //
the same as those in a normal skyscraper.-- marklar, Sep 16 2007 Google on "alice city" I think the plasma screen widows could help with the whole claustrophobic thing.-- Xenophile, Sep 16 2007 //The main reason that I got this idea was to avoid another 9/11 type incident.//
Terrorists tend to use the element of surprise to their advantage. They never strike the same same way twice.
They could probably come up with a hundred ways of killing people in an deep underground building (=giant human trap) that are easier than hijacking a plane.
One example: They could block the air vents and fill the building with nerve gas.-- kinemojo, Sep 17 2007 The problem with building downwards is cost. It is actually more expensive to dig down through hard rock than to build up (not to mention issues with flooding if you go down far enough to hit the water table). That being said I swear I saw a special on exactly that being done with an unused mine some years ago, although I can't find any references at this point. For a mine to work it has to be something where large volumes not narrow seams were pulled out, as mines are rarely dug any taller than absolutely neccesary.-- MechE, Sep 17 2007 And there's a problem with using monitors in place of windows. Monitors cannot yet simulate the depth of field of an actual view, and your brain is not fooled at all.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 20 2018 Why not build skyscrapers sideways?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 20 2018 Spent a year and a half tiling a 20 story building here. Before we started the tower they built show-suites with back-lit window boxes showing folks what the view from their potential apartments would look like from that elevation.
If the screens were substantially larger than the windows they are seen through it would fix that depth of field problem as long as they curved underneath so you could look down when you got close.
But why bother with electronic devices which 'will' fail at some point?Why not periscopic windows?-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 20 2018 //It is actually more expensive to dig down through hard rock than to build up...
Someone will invent hard air, but not me at this time in the morning. (goes to get more coffee)-- not_morrison_rm, Nov 20 2018 //it would fix that depth of field problem// Not really. For one thing there's parallax, and for another there's focussing distance - your brain can tell whether your eyes are having focus on something 3ft away versus 300ft.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 20 2018 //Why not build skyscrapers sideways?//
Actually, there was a fashion for those things in the 1990s. They were called groundscrapers. I think the Merrill Lynch building in Farringdon was an example.-- pertinax, Nov 20 2018 // Not really. For one thing there's parallax//
Yes that one is a pickle. You could create a lenticular screen which projects two distinct images approximately a standard human eye separation distance but it would only work well on people with average eye spacing.
// and for another there's focussing distance - your brain can tell whether your eyes are having focus on something 3ft away versus 300ft//
Sure, when you get three feet away. Until then your brain would be telling your... other brain that what you was seeing was ligit but it's another reason for periscopes rather than screens.
Check out this link. Not entirely on-topic but not entirely off of it either... Give me a bit.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 21 2018 Ha! First hit......it's the little things y'know?[link]-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 21 2018 random, halfbakery