Monday, November 18, 2019

Fact: Hover > Non-Hover

I'm...no. I mean, I'm not an architect, but no, right? Like c'mon. Huh? Yeah, I'll explain. This story about some Georges Kachaamy, an architect who thinks that the future is floating buildings. And no, not like floating on water, just floating. Like hover buildings?
Because future.
Soon the promise of 70's rock
album covers shall be fulfilled.
Yeah, Hover buildings. Kachaamy, a professor at the American University of Dubai, believes that the future is in buildings that float above the ground...somehow. Why? Well, resistance to natural disasters like flood and earthquakes for one. Also, floating buildings would allow cities to expand upward rather than outward. Oh, and according to Archdaily, an architectural website, these magic floating buildings will "provide the opportunity to disconnect from the city and reconnect with nature on a higher plane." Which is gibberish, but I think a better question might be how are these buildings supposed to float now?

Well, maybe proof that the Dubai 
mall still has a Spencer's Gifts... 
The answer, of course, is no idea. No, really. At this stage this whole floating building thing is more like an art installation than actual hover buildings. He has built some prototypes though. Well, I say prototypes, but models is probably a better word. And yeah, they do float thanks to magnets or something, but there's a long walk between floaty magnetic office toy and hover buildings. Think of these as a proof of concept that doesn't actually prove anything. The buildings, should they ever be realized (they won't be), would be suspended in the air via a scaled up version of the models' magnetic levitation. Sort of like maglev trains, but even less practical. Oh, and the affirmative power of belief. Did I mention the affirmative power of belief?

Pictured: nonsense. 
Because according to Kachaamy the affirmative power of belief is vital component of the floating sky cities of tomorrow. You'd think it'd be more about the magnets, but no, it's belief. 

"When you realize the possibilities you truly believe it is not so far away. This is not science fiction."

-Georges Kachaamy, that annoying
friend on Facebook who's constantly
posting meaningless motivational quotes

Wait, it's exactly science fiction. I mean the definition of science fiction is something that draws on speculative science and technology, so Kachaamy's floating buildings are literally science fiction. But look, I'm not here to nay say (although nay, I say), but I would like to question the practicality of future urban planning that involves building structures on complicated and expensive maglev bases for no reason other than it would look totally rad.
I think a certain Sir Isaac Newton would have something to say
about all this. Specifically something like "Wiiiiiiitch! Burn him!"

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