The 350th floor

Super building (or "vertical city"). The Japanese are already working on it

"There was no doubt: the volume was the peak of man's control over the environment. Not the journey through space, not the fifty inhabited worlds... but the volume." This is what the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote in 1964 in his book "Caves of Steel", which described a futuristic urban reality where huge volumes cover the entire planet, and natural landscapes become a museum exhibit.

The whole of humanity, imprisoned in those steel and concrete "caves", suffers from extreme agoraphobia - anxiety about open spaces: "All the inhabitants of the earth lived inside the volumes. Outside was the sun and the open sky that few people could resist…”

Such a terrifying urban vision is not impossible, if you take into account the continuous population growth, the unrestrained growth of large cities and the incessant milling of natural and agricultural areas in favor of concrete and asphalt. According to UN forecasts, in 2010 there will be 26 cities in the world, each with a population exceeding 10 million. The largest of them will be Tokyo, with a population approaching 30 million. A large part of these cities are spreading in all directions, eliminating open spaces, creating areas of poverty and crime, suffocating from air pollution and traffic jams, creating "heat islands" (an urban phenomenon of a significant increase in temperature and humidity), devouring energy, emitting "greenhouse effect" gases into the atmosphere and causing problems harsh environmentalism.

And what about us? Tel Aviv is not Tokyo, but the center of the country has become one of the densest areas in the world, and the unrestrained construction of cottage neighborhoods and low-rise buildings continues to rob the remaining open spaces from future generations. The study "Israel 2020" (by a team headed by Prof. Adam Mazor of the Technion) determined back in 1993 that without fundamental planning changes, by the year 2020, most of the land for construction in the entire area north of Be'er Sheva will be depleted and the open spaces in this area will be lost, along with the collapse of the transportation systems and the infrastructure and severe damage to the quality of the environment".

What to do? You have to think of unconventional ideas. It is doubtful that we do this, but this is what the Ministry of Construction of the Japanese government does, for example, which is troubled by the nightmare vision of 30 million Japanese people crowding Tokyo at the end of the decade. Such an unconventional idea, although controversial, is the vision of "super buildings" - hyper buildings. These are buildings that rise to a height of 1,000 meters (for comparison, this is a building 2.5 times higher than the "Twin Towers" of New York and twice from the tallest building in the world currently being built in Taipa, Taiwan, which is supposed to rise to a height of 508 m when its construction is completed in 2003).

It may seem a little crazy and crazy, but not in the eyes of the Japanese. They are seriously talking about a vision of such "super-buildings", with a total floor area of ​​10 square kilometers, designed to survive and function properly for 1,000 years. (According to the plan, a kind of super-skeleton will be built, which will stand for a thousand years, and various units will be assembled on it, whose lifespan will be shorter, according to the changing needs).

Who would want to live in an urban monster of 350 floors, maybe more, where 100 thousand people live (and maybe 300 thousand stay there during the day)? It is not clear. Humanity has not yet experienced this, but only a few years ago even a 50-story building was unimaginable. According to the Japanese concept, we are not talking about an urban monster at all, and in fact not just any tall building, but about a "vertical city" whose whole purpose is to exist in harmony with the environment, through optimal utilization of land and energy resources and maximum preservation of open spaces and green lungs around the huge building (and to the extent certain also within it).

The Japanese publications describe the "super-building" (or the vertical city) as "architecture that will fully contribute to the life of society in the future... as an organism that works in coordination and harmony with the larger organism - the Earth." A building that will be friendly to both humans and the environment." The emphasis is on quality of life: integration of technologies for internal, vertical and horizontal transportation, climate control, recreational facilities, recreation and medical treatment, access to sunlight and maximum utilization of solar energy, use of advanced construction materials and measures to protect against earthquakes, sophisticated communication and information systems.

All of these still require research and development, even though the basic concepts already exist. The psychological aspect - the ability to adapt to life in the vertical city - requires research. There is still no concrete project to build a "super-building", but detailed architectural designs already exist and exist, and the Japanese hope to start experimental construction (in the first stage, perhaps a "mini-super-building" only 400 meters high) within a few years. The Japanese Ministry of Construction has already established a "Committee for the Study of Super Buildings" and has also supported several planning works by architects in Japan and other countries.

One of the spectacular and interesting designs was proposed by the architect Paolo Solari, born in Italy, who is currently working in the United States and has been trying for many years to promote innovative urban planning concepts with a high awareness of environmental aspects. He carries the flag of "archeology" - a combination of architecture and ecology in the planning of a future urban space, where, according to him, "the pedestrian is king, distances are measured in minutes and using a car is senseless." The only means of transportation within the "vertical city" will be elevators (special, which will move both vertically and horizontally), stairs and moving sidewalks, small electric cars (like in Disneyland), and above all - bicycles. Yes, the good old bike.

Solari has a detailed plan to build in the Mojave desert, halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, a super building that will house about 100 thousand tenants. It is designed as a rounded tower that is a kilometer high, surrounded by two low ring buildings, to which radial passages lead - a design that indicates a conscious use of erotic images. "The tower symbolizes the male," writes Solari, "and the concentric rings the female, the womb." Their mutual penetration creates the urban complexity and fertility."

It is not easy to replace the dream of the small house with the garden in the apartment on the 350th floor in the vertical city. But future generations may think otherwise. They may also have no choice. Does the concentration of each Gush Dan in five or six super buildings, with parks and nature reserves between them and around them, sound like a too Japanese idea?

{The article first appeared in the Haaretz newspaper, 8/2/2001 and later on the website of the Israel Astronomical Society, and is presented here with the permission of the author}