with a double-skinned layer on the outside.

so...does that mean it is unsinkable and impervious to icebergs?

winmac

@eriegz: only i want to have giant doors that open and i can just fly into my corner office kinda "death star-ish"

winmac

someday it will be like taking a helicopter to the top of Mt. Everest...they can only go half way...then you get out and walk to the top.

winmac

It will oscillate towards the sky? That doesn't mean what I think you think it means.

Pope John Peeps II

@Overheal: I'm... always surfing Asia... kind of one of the things you do when you live there.

Elaine Chow

@Overheal: Zomg! PEW PEW PEW.
Dare I saw kittens inside sharks mind controlling them with their lasers attached to their heads?

Razza

Am I the only guy on here that's always wanted to be that CEO that flies his helicopter to work every morning and parks it on the helipad directly above his corner office?

eriegz

I hate to say it but it looks a wee bit like a paper towel dispenser. Oh, or the newspaper... hmm, where is mine again?

...Cool nonetheless.

Razza

it always puts a smile on my face when you can almost tell where the giz editors have been surfing. one week its the apple store, the next week its asia. Can we have more laser stuff? I love laser stuff. Pew pew pew. And kittens. perhaps even kittens with fricken laser beams attached to their heads.

Overheal

@eriegz: GM CEOs have similar (but fulfilled) dreams, I've heard

Elaine Chow

@I'm a PC: helicopter on Everest

I'm a PC

@winmac: helicopters can go to the top of Everest

I'm a PC

It's nine, nine, nine buildings in one.

rockboy04

@winmac:
Better still - I want someone to build me fresh bay doors to CRASH through every morning like Arnold in the last few scenes of T3!

eriegz

Oscillating skyscraper? Sounds like a case of Edifice Flex...

Stem_Sell

@winmac: It's made of glass and modern steel, not 20th century steel made brittle by North Atlantic waters....so I'd say yes. I think Mr. Bruce Ismay would agree.

DigitalSciGuy

seriously every time i go back to shanghai to visit family, i see some new weird ass designed building... I guess I can anticipate seeing this (partially build at least) next time i visit.

chickdigger802

@Pope John Peeps II: I certainly hope it doesn't oscillate too much...otherwise it might fly away, or crumble to the ground.

DigitalSciGuy

wow this is going to be awesome.

WaffleTeamStrike

@eriegz:

meh... i prefer parachuting to my desk...
move over richard branson :)

zchen - Go Pacman!!!!

That is one awesome building indeed.

I love it when they build crazy stuff like this. Screw you, ugly square buildings!

Herman

thats...so...awesome...

ZetaCrossfire

I've lived in China 13 years and have watched the entire Shanghai skyline grow during that time. My office window looks directly at the Mori Building and the new construction site, will be fun to watch this one grow out of the ground as well. By the way, if you think this is a crazy design, you need to visit Shanghai, this is tame compared to some of the other architecture here.

chinaguy

Inconceivable!!

chinaguy

The top few floors will probably be shrouded in Chinas famous pollution so 1) you cant really tell how tall it is from the ground and 2)the observation decks will be useless.

dosthebos2

@winmac: Wow...but, uh, if you can fly to the top of Everest...

man...there are just so many things wrong with that.

winmac

What a copy of the Turning Torso in Malmoe Sweden,
[en.wikipedia.org]

Stalhandske

@winmac: GIANT SPIRAL ESCALATOR

Moargazm

this building is high, but that's about it. there is nothing special about it, i miss the speciality about it. i am sad that architects rarely invent new ideas..

Bodypainter

Meanwhile, we can't even get the Freedom Tower off the ground or make sure our bridges aren't going to crumble when we drive over them. The US is becoming more of a second-rate and third-world country every day. We owe massive debt to China, we funded the UAE's skyrocketing economy with oil money, empowered Hugo Chavez with the same...meanwhile we cling to our old, tired Puritanical ways that have prevented us from having universal health care and decent education. When more people believe in the literal story of Creation over the theory of evolution, you know we live in a backwards nation. When people fight to the death for the rights of the unborn, and then send them of to die in a meaningless war once they are born and grow up a little, alarm bells should go off. Is China a beacon of all that is good and righteous? No, but neither are we. And right now, China is kicking our asses in most of the ways that count. This building is just shoving it in our face. January 20th cannot come soon enough.

gadjitfreek

We just saw the groundbreaking of this happen while in Shanghai. The area where it is being built is going to be a skyscraper circus. It's crazy walking around Pudong. I feel sorry for the two other towers that get their billion dollar views blocked.

flamingmenudo

@gadjitfreek: "And right now, China is kicking our asses in most of the ways that count."

Highest emitter of CO2 in the world? Check
Highest emitter of CO2 per unit of GDP generated? Check
6x the generation of CO2 per ton of steel produced? Check (Here in the "getting out asses kicked" USA, we produce around .3 tons of CO2 per ton of steel produced, in China it's more in the 1.8 to 1.9 tons of CO2 per ton of steel)
Notoriously ineffecient user of energy? Check
Rampant air-quality issues? Check (Beijing, pre and post Olypics had air quality anywhere from 2x to 6x as poor as L.A. . . . and those are the numbers the government is willing to release)
Notorious subsidizer of industries and currencies in direct violation of WTO rules? Check
Little to no safety rules/regulation in the workplace? Check (by some estimates, approximately 300 people PER DAY die in coal mines in China -- but I suppose that's OK, 'cause they're building REALLY COOL skyscrapers)
Press, TV, and Internet censorship? Check
Egregious human rights violations and mass executions for "crimes against the state"? Check

Yeah, they are TOTALLY kicking our asses . . .

While I do comment here from time to time, I'm seldom compelled to respond to someone else's comments . . . unless said comments are as ridiculous as yours. How 'bout we give you a pass for trying to be sarcastic, maybe too young, or too dumb to do a little research or reading before comments?

Also, the next time you feel compelled to comment on politics, please find a political forum on which to write them. This blog is about GADGETS and other cool technology-related stuff, not about your lack of understanding of international politics and political agenda around pro-choice, energy policy, or the like.

Now, back to bed for you without your milk and cookies.

Hodo

The top down view makes it seem as if the architect got his initial idea from a not-perfectly-rolled-up newspaper. The view from the ground makes it seem less spectacular, which us sad, since thats angle from which people most will see it.

The shorter builing to the right (the one with the handle) looks just like a really cool cheese grater I have.

Curves

@winmac:

No, it means that it will not leak oil if it runs aground.

soulfinger

That is exquisitely beautiful; the only thing that is letting it down is the god damn bottle opener next
to it.

MadCrazy

@Hodo: Ohhhhhh burn!

Seriously though, the guys pretty much dead on with everything he said before, "China is kicking out asses..."

Brogen

@Hodo: Don't forget all the fuss over china possibly building their first aircraft carrier, when we have about a dozen currently in service. We could easily stop all their 'progress' if we were so imperialistically minded.

Gann

@Hodo: Notice he said, "in most of the ways that count."

I guess it all comes down to what you consider important.

Let me ask you something, what would you rather have, clean air or be the king of manufacturer in the world? There are always trade-offs. You can't have both at the moment. There are many countires in Europe that have very clean air and nice environment, but they also can't produce anything. Take a look at Iceland, they don't make anything but they have very clean air and beautiful secenery. Would you like the U.S. to be like them?

Noobs-R-Us

@Gann:
With a population of 1,321,851,888 I don't think so. America can't even deal with a country like Iraq or Afghanistan with old and broken down arms and a bunch of guys running around in sandals and knapsack.

Everyone is a tuff guy until the fight starts.

wetworker

I really hope they had someone check to make sure that the slit going all the way up the side of the building leading to a recessed helipad isn't going to cause some nasty turbulence that is going to make a helicopter trying to land on the pad crash into the building.

ceilingFANBOY

@Noobs-R-Us: Let's start here: "There are many countries in Europe that have very clean air and nice environment, but they also can't produce anything." Then you cite ICELAND. Yeah, Iceland is the very FIRST country I think of when I think of Europe, absolutely. Hmm, what do you say we look at the heart of Europe. Do you happen to know who the 2nd largest exporter in the world is, behind China? Not the US, no. Not even a SE Asian country. Not Japan. Germany. Germany has some pretty clean air and still manages to be a world-wide leader in export volumes and a worldwide presence in the production of steel and automobiles. Seriously, you couldn't have picked a worse example (Europe) if you had tried to do so. Even so, let's look at another country with some serious manufacturing "props" -- Japan. 2nd or 3rd largest producer of steel globally (China drawfs everyone, unfortunately), one of the larger producer of automobiles, significant producer of electronics and technology. While Japan isn't necessarily a leader in air quality, many of their air quality issue are caused by documented "drift over" from . . . you guessed it, China.

In any case, this is decidedly NOT an "either / or" proposition. There are plenty of examples of disparities between countries that are "doing it right" in specific industries (like steel) versus countries that aren't (China). China's problems around the environment have less to do with how large they are, and far, far more to do with their imperative to cram 100 years of industrialization into a couple of decades (as well as inefficient, READ: cheap, methods of production).

Hodo

@Stalhandske: "...Designed by San Francisco-firm Gensler..."

Blame Gensler. But still, the HSB Turning Torso is based of Calatrava's sculpture Turning Torso. So perhaps they took the idea off the sculpture, like the HSB did? Either way, this versions bigger and better. Luxury hotels and sky gardens FTW.

kazemizuhi

@kazemizuhi: EDIT: change 'levitate' for 'generate lift'.

kazemizuhi

@I'm a PC: Wow. How did it manage to levitate at such altitudes in such a region?

kazemizuhi

@Elaine Chow: Touché

Overheal

@Hodo: May I inquire as to your profession? It is just that I am impressed at how well-informed you are at economic and political affairs (esp. in contrast to most users here).

kazemizuhi

@Hodo: Considering the Communist Party has only been in power for 59 years, you have got to commend them. They significantly improved the standards of living, industrialized the country, secured the economy, and now is one of the largest if not the largest economic power house in the world. The US has had hundreds of years to get to where the are now, so give China a couple more years. Considering that at establishment; they had to deal with a starving population of over one billion, empty national treasury, World War 2 and Sino-Japanese War (started in 1937). If under the same conditions, the American government would've crumbled long ago.

DriscollSnass

@Hodo: hug more trees

Clazzi

It's a shame the Chicago Spire is now "on hold"

Lupison

@kazemizuhi: I am an economist/analyst. Though the economist part is up for debate -- I try not to act like I know how things will turn out, mostly because trying to predict where things will go leaves most economists (myself included) spending more time explaining why they were wrong than putting together their next forecast.

Hodo

@DriscollSnass: Wouldn't disagree with that assessment one bit. For as much heat as China takes for their economic policies, I'm not so sure they're doing a particularly bad job, based upon the situation they're in. What "situation", you ask? Well, as a Communist state in a world that has largely moved away from "pure" Communism and has access to the information of how "the other half lives", China has had to modify their system to be at least partially capitalist (and indeed maybe in full transition to a socialist or capitalist system, time will tell). One impact here is that folks, once they get a "taste", tend not to want to turn back to slugging it out in a rice field for a subsistence living. You may recall that the most recent Mao-ist revolution was led by the peasants. I think the ruling Communist party remembers this well, and understands implicitly that an employed and at least eating proletariat is less likely to revolt than an un-employed, starving one. As a result, China's economy is based less upon "profit" and pure capitalism than it is simply employment. China's "job one" as it were, is to continue to create enough jobs such that the masses moving from the inner country side to the coastal cities (2/3rd of China's population lives on a land mass roughly 1/2 the size of the US) can find a place to work. If I'm not mistaken, the statistice is staggering. Something like 1 million Chinese move from rural areas to a metropolitan area EVERY MONTH. Keeping up that rate of job growth is a challenge in many, many ways -- which is why things like worker safety, human rights, and the environment are secondary, tertiary or potentially NON-concerns at this point in time for the ruling class, er, I mean the Communist Party (I always find ironic, the idea that Communism, in concept, was built around the idea of no classes, when in fact, Communist regimes have class strata equal to if not exceeding Capitalist strata).

None of that, however, negates the fact that there are some huge prices being paid for such rapid, "forced" progress -- and while many of these prices are being paid locally (by the Chinese) some are being paid by other, unwilling participants. Just ask the citizens of Japan about their new air quality problems (created by China's massive industrialization and poor environmental controls).

While the US government may very well have crumbled under such stress, at least part of that would have been due to not actively repressing its citizens (at least not to the degree that the Chinese gov't seems to be willing to do so).

Keep in mind that China's GDP is still roughly 1/3 or 1/2 (my memory isn't quite up to snuff today) of the US, with most forecasts putting parity somewhere out in 2025, 2040 or further. So, growing like a weed? Yes. "Kicking our ass" . . . um, no. Actually, given the population disparity, (4:1), it's a surprise that China's economic footprint isn't larger.

Hodo

@Hodo: Actually, what I state would be true for almost all of Europe. They left their manufacturing base to lower cost producers, ie third world. That's the natural progression of economies. As a pseudo economists, you should know that. Lots of German and Japanese cars are actually produced here in the states.

For the most part it is a either or proposition. As William Buckley once said, "Idealism is fine, but as it approaches reality, the cost becomes prohibitive." There's a cycle of life in the way economies develop. ALL countries MUST go through the same progression in order to go from third world into a developed nation. It's a bit hypocritical for you to say that China doesn't have the right to pollute when we went through the same phase in our economy as they are going through now. As a matter of fact, we should be taking the lead in reducing carbon emissions and yet we refuse to do so. Why do you think that is?

Noobs-R-Us