Waterfront views and wind power come together in Dubai

July 1, 2008

dubai.jpgTwo issues that have been the subject of much discussion in the pages of the Daily Record – building condo towers with stunning water views, and the potential for wind power as an alternative energy source – have been married, to a psychedelic effect, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, by an Italian architect.

The BBC reports that Florence-based designer David Fisher has planned an 80-story skyscraper, the Dynamic Tower, which would rise more than 1,300 feet (that’s 2.6 times as high as the Legg Mason building) into the sky and would house condo units that rotate around central columns using wind power.

The $700 million project, expected to be completed in 2010, would have 79 turbines, placed between floors that would capture the wind, which blows strong off of the Persian Gulf, allowing the owners of the housing units, which run from $3.7 million to $36 million, to rotate their homes using a voice-command system. The idea is that the building would be constantly changing, never looking exactly the same at any two given moments. Something like living in a combination-snowflake-windmill, I guess.

Dubai, with its sailboat-shaped hotels, underwater restaurants and indoor ski slopes, has lately not been a place for modest design ambitions, and something of a paradise for dreamer architects, but this project takes the cake. Imagine if we had one of these babies in Baltimore. Who needs views on three sides in some old grain elevator?

Don’t forget your Dramamine, though.

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer

Sphere: Related Content

Posted by Jackie Sauter | Filed Under business, real estate 

Comments

2 Responses to “Waterfront views and wind power come together in Dubai”

  1. Barry on August 13th, 2008 7:11 am

    Great Post! You might like my article on a similar topic Residential Wind Power

  2. James McGrew on September 25th, 2008 12:26 pm

    Before our hard earned tax dollars are spent, we need to make certain that they are spent right.

    Please check this out:

    http://www.reasonablepower.com/1/somethingtosay.shtml

    I have read the links about wind turbines and windmills and think that the physics and the NASA references make a lot of sense.

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