The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a proposed

Shimizu Corporation is an architecture, architectural, civil engineering and General contractor, general contracting firm. It has annual sales of approximately US$15 billion and has been widely recognized as one of the top 5 contractors in Japan and among the top 2 ...

project for the construction of a massive self-sustaining

arcology Arcology, a Blend word, portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",. is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and Sustainable development, ecologically low-impact human habitats. The term was coined in ...

-pyramid over

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...

in Japan that would have businesses, parks, and other services contained within the building. The structure would house 1,000,000 people. The structure would be 2,004 meters (6,575 feet) high, including five stacked

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

es, each with similar dimensions to that of the

Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...

. This pyramid would help answer Tokyo's increasing lack of space, although the project would only handle a small fraction of the population of the

Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba Prefecture, Chiba, Gunma Prefecture, Gunma, Ibaraki Prefecture, ...

. The proposed structure is so large that it could not be built with current conventional materials, due to their weight. The design relies on the future availability of super-strong lightweight materials based on

carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with a diameter in the nanometre range ( nanoscale). They are one of the allotropes of carbon. Two broad classes of carbon nanotubes are recognized: * ''Single-walled carbon nanotubes'' (''S ...

s and

graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...

presently being researched. The plan was to start construction in 2030, but no further action has been taken. Shimizu is still determined to complete the project by 2110; if built, it would make history as the largest man-made structure in world history. This would also mean that the construction would last for 80 years.

History

Tokyo has been having issues in regard to overpopulation, due to internal migration, among other causes. The Shimizu Corporation, which has been located in Tokyo since the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, witnessed it firsthand. They had an idea for a solution that was different from other proposed ideas. It started in 1982, when one of the employees went to see ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

'' and saw the opening scene showing the two pyramids the Tyrell Corporation operated from. The architectural marvel amazed the engineer, who told his other colleagues about it the following day, leading to the idea for the Mega-City pyramid. 10 years later, in October of 1992, representatives travelled to patent offices the world over to patent their idea internationally.

Materials and construction process

The pyramid's

foundation Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

would be formed by 36 piers made of special concrete. Because the seismically active

Pacific Ring of Fire The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is about long and up to about wide, and surrounds most of the Pa ...

cuts right through Japan, the external structure of the pyramid would be an open network of megatrusses, supporting struts made from

s to allow the pyramid to stand against and let through high winds, and survive

earthquakes An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they c ...

and

tsunamis A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, la ...

. The trusses would be coated with

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

film to convert sunlight into electricity and help power the city. The city would also be powered by

pond scum A pond is a small, still, land-based body of water formed by pooling inside a depression, either naturally or artificially. A pond is smaller than a lake and there are no official criteria distinguishing the two, although defining a pond t ...

or algae.

Robotic Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

systems are planned to play a major part in both construction and building maintenance.

Interior traffic and buildings

Transportation within the city would be provided by accelerating walkways,

inclined elevators Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

, and a

personal rapid transit Personal rapid transit (PRT), also referred to as podcars or guided/railed taxis, is a public transport mode featuring a network of specially built guideways on which ride small automated vehicles that carry few (generally less than 6) passenge ...

system where automated pods would travel within the trusses. Housing and office space would be provided by twenty-four or more 30-story high

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

s suspended from above and below and attached to the pyramid's supporting structure with nanotube cables.

References

External links

Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering: City in a Pyramid
*

{{supertall proposed skyscrapers Unbuilt buildings and structures in Japan Proposed buildings and structures in Japan Science and technology in Japan Robotics in Japan Proposed populated places Artificial islands of Tokyo Pyramids in Japan Shimizu Corporation Proposed arcologies

History

Materials and construction process

Interior traffic and buildings

See also

References

External links