Dubai May Build A Massive Space-Age Ring To Encircle The World’s Tallest Building

Najmus Chowdry and Nils Remess, the lead architects of ZNera Space, have come up with a new concept called The Downtown Circle, which involves building a massive space-age ring to encircle the world’s tallest building in Dubai.

Dubai May Build A Massive Space-Age Ring To Encircle The World's Tallest Building 1

A giant five-story circular structure wrapped around the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper, which stands at an astounding 829.8 metres (2,723 ft), nearly twice the height of the Empire State Building, has been proposed by experimental architecture firm ZNera Space in Dubai.

The Downtown Circle concept, which combines community, luxury, and futuristic urban planning in a crazily ambitious design, has been brought to life by a series of captivating illustrations made in partnership with Pictown, a company that specialises in architectural renderings.

Najmus Chowdry and Nils Remess, the lead architects of ZNera Space, view Downtown Circle as a horizontal line against Dubai’s dizzying, futuristic cityscape of seemingly limitless skyscrapers.

An ever-changing skyline

Chowdry and Remess acknowledge that despite the Downtown Circle’s unique and attractive design, it is now both financially and practically impractical.

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“It was meant to be a conversation starter,” said Chowdry. “Something that could trigger people to rethink urban development, to rethink city congestion … We are promising the sustainable city.”

“We were working on very important aspects that raise the discussion about how we are planning cities,” added Remess. “The reason we picked the Burj Khalifa was because it is in a very dense urban area, and we want to address the issues that accompany dense city populations.”

The building would be more than three kilometres in circumference and sit 550 metres (1,804 feet) above street level (1.8 miles). Five enormous pillars, the bases of which would be in empty lots, would support the ring and may also serve other purposes.

Dubai May Build A Massive Space-Age Ring To Encircle The World's Tallest Building 2
Downtown Circle would draw power from both solar and solar-hydrogen cell systems

“We wanted to create a microclimate in Downtown and create a sort of envelope around the area to control the temperature and make it more liveable in hot weather,” said Chowdry. “You can use those vertical [pillars] as urban air purifiers.”

The ZNera Space smog-filtering design, which was a finalist for the World Architecture Festival 2018 award in the area of “Experimental Future Project,” might be included into the pillars’ construction.

Sustainable design for the future

Because it usually gets hotter above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Dubai, the architects hope their creation will become a new standard for sustainability in the area.

“The entire ceiling will be a stretch of solar panels,” said Chowdry. “What we also want to do is implement a technology that we have already used in a previous project, solar hydrogen cells.”

This technique turns water into hydrogen using solar energy, which powers the air conditioner and supplies electricity to the building.

Dubai May Build A Massive Space-Age Ring To Encircle The World's Tallest Building 3
Part of the design concept includes an electric tram system suspended around the bottom of the structure

Dubai’s aspirational blueprint for a sustainable urban environment by 2040 was taken into consideration when creating the design.

The idea also suggests ways to get from one end to the other, such as an electric tram system with a top speed of 100 kilometres per hour (62 miles per hour) and sky taxi infrastructure.

A “self-sustained” city

The engineering problems involved in achieving this level of architectural ambition include building a framework that is both sturdy enough to hold the interior features and lightweight enough to be supported by the pillars.

“The structure itself is pretty lightweight. I imagine it as (a large) aircraft — the skin, the ribs, that becomes the structure and inside it’s all hollow,” said Chowdry.

“But then it’s supported by these columns and the circle ring,” he continued. “We chose to make it circular because it’s the most stable structural format.”

According to Remess, the proposed Downtown Circle would integrate residential space with corporate, commercial, and cultural hubs to create a holistic “elf-sustained city within a city.” “If you live there, you can reach your office, or you can reach your park, or you can reach your home in a 15-to-20-minute walk. In Dubai, it’s hard to do that.”

Dubai May Build A Massive Space-Age Ring To Encircle The World's Tallest Building 4
ZNera Space’s principal architects Najmus Chowdry and Nils Remes hope their concept will get people talking about better ways to build in urban areas for a healthy and sustainable future.

The Skypark, a continuous green belt connecting the building’s five stories, is the focal point of the interior design.

“The Skypark is the central spine of the entire design,” explained Chowdry. “It will be a mixed-use green space and it will also act as a space to rethink how agriculture is going to happen in the future, especially in cities.”

“If you look historically, first came agriculture and then we built the city,” said Remess. “Now we have kind of lost this concept. With this greenbelt inside the structure, we want to bring back agriculture and food production to the city center.”

Although the idea is getting some attention, not all of it is favourable. Since the mock-ups were posted on the company’s Instagram page, some commenters have claimed that the design may tear apart the downtown area’s infrastructure.

Although some internet comments have been critical, someone recently asked us, “Which looks better: an empty finger or a finger with the ring on it?” “Chowdry” said. “I think it just adds to the verticality of Burj Khalifa.”

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