X-SEED 4000: World’s tallest tower will house 1 million people
by KateThere’s a lot of debate about what the tallest tower in the world currently is. Some say the Taipei 101, at 1671 ft to the tip of it’s spire, is the world’s tallest tower, whereas we might argue that the Sears Tower, at a whopping 1731 ft (and 110 stories), still takes the prize. However, if the enormous, 13,000 ft X-Seed 4000 structure ever gets built in Tokyo - it will win the worlds-tallest-building competition hands down and leave its puny competitors in the dirt.
Looking eerily like Mt. Doom in the above rendering, the mountain-like X-Seed 4000 represents a utopian eco-vision for a self-contained high-rise city in the Tokyo harbor - powered mainly by solar energy. Aesthetically inspired by nearby Mt. Fuji, the behemoth building would measure 13,123 feet tall with a 6 square-kilometer footprint, and could accommodate five hundred thousand to one million inhabitants.
Designed by Taisei Construction Corporation as an “intelligent building,” the futuristically-named X-Seed 4000 would maintain light, temperature, and air pressure in response to changing external weather conditions.
Unlike conventional skyscrapers, the X-Seed 4000 would be required to actively protect its occupants from considerable air pressure gradations and weather fluctuations along its massive elevation. Its design calls for the use of solar power to maintain internal environmental conditions. Some estimate that the cost to construct the X-Seed 4000 structure may be somewhere between US$300-900 billion.
We’re not saying it’s impossible, but for now, X-Seed 4000 seems like more of a utopian vision for contemporary green urban planning than a viable design solution.
August 12th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Sadly like all Japanese supertall proposals, this, Sky City 1000, Mother, The Spiral, TRY-2004, Aeropolis 2001, Hyper Building, Millenium Tower, and several others, will never be built. Japan has a wonderful history of designing architectural vapourware much like South Korea but on an even larger scale.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:58 am
It’s all rather modernist isn’t it. Interesting idea but in a small way it feels slightly robotic. I’d be hesitant living in something powered by solar power if it was life-dependent. A narrow view of course, but whoops a cloudy day and the air pressure is suddenly too much. No thanks. It does look like a man-made Mt Fuji with not an ‘inth of the beauty.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Cool and all. But about existing towers… there’s no debate: the CN Tower in Toronto is the tallest, at a “whopping” 1815 feet: World’s Tallest Towers.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Just exactly what is the point of this? Take a look around at real land, real mountains . . . real earth . . . and you have to say, heck, we’ve already got an excellent planet on which to put a million people, closer to the ground, in human-scaled dwellings. Not suggesting single-family houses for all, just questioning this mega-structure and wondering why it’s on inhabitat. Sustainable isn’t good enough. It also has to be worthwhile.
August 20th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
When I see these proposals I think of the following: smog, a section of the people will often be in clouds and have no way of getting out of them, the massive shadow that the building itself will project over a city, and how big of an eyesore most of these would be.
Another useful questions is for many of these which have sections that are free-standing and thus can be walked under: what goes under there?
August 20th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
@ Sea Wolf
These mountians you speak of can only house people on their surfaces (unless you consider drilling into the mountain, and “coring” it but then you run into other issues like the integrity of the mountain (read: cave collapsing)) All in all, actually living on a mountain would do a number of different things.
First it would piss a whole lot of envorinmentalists off (not saying that building an artifical “mountain” won’t…but perhaps not as much if you consider that it would be built on land that is already colonized for lack of a better word.
Second, people would only be able to live so high before there is a noticeable air pressure change. Sure, it is still livable people just have to adapt, and this is what defines different cultures, but from a business aspect, no company wants to have to adapt their breathing (permanently for the sake of the argument)
This man made mountain would serve as a right of passage almost, proving to human beings that we can do large scale things like this, they don’t necessarily need to serve that much of a purpose. Think of concept cars for example, Their only purpose is to stimulate the minds of the engineers so they can produce a cheaper, slower, overall less cool but way more practical vehicle.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
It’s rather elegant looking … however, I sure wouldn’t want to be living in it when a major earthquake strikes!
You’d think inhabitants of an earthquake prone area such as Tokyo - and where I live - would prefer to be on or close to the ground.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Scary indeed, seems too omniscient like the Tower from Half Life 2 (City 17)..sorta like the eyes of big brother watches you from a top.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
The CN Tower is classified as “The Worlds Tallest Free Standing Structure.” So Mr Fodden, you’re right to say there’s no debate, because the CN Tower does not apply.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
That last picture is of the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, not the X-SEED 4000. Also, everyone should check out Extreme Engineering, a documentary by Discovery Channel, each episode covers a different mega-structure and is really interesting despite the fact that the bulidings are probably never going to be built.
August 20th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
People people please … one starts with an idea … and works from there … of course there would have to be a need … and of course … a solar outage would not equal catastrophe …
August 20th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I think it is a stunning piece of architecture. It appears to me to be a very lived in shape, think of the pyramids and volcanoes, all teaming with different kinds of life. Very impressive.
August 20th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Once again human kind inspires with the argument ‘that we can’, with little or no recognition of thought given to whether ‘we should…..’
Seriouly - self sufficiency aside (in the completed mega structure) - how ridiculously HUGE would the embodied energy footprint of something like this be - and how long is the payback period for all that embodied energy???!!!
I can’t help but agree that we need to be much MUCH smarter in terms of what we benchmark as ’sustainable’.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
I think it would be feesable if it looked a liitle bit less sinister. The pyramids where very
sinister, sharp and clean in there original white marble form, back in there day, however
they where tombs.
This thing is a residential tower, from what I have read, so, I would soften
and round off its image a bit more,
The upper reaches of the structure could also be built in weather protected
natural materials, like tree trunks.
The name is a bit too hopefull, but maybe thats appropriate?
But you will have to have a “HELLISH” amount of ecological ideas,
and fire protection ideas tested and certified before it would be generally
accepted.
What flag would the people doing this put on it ?
Maybe, a white flag or the united nations flag?
Good luck.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
A six square kilometer footprint on Japan’s earthquake pron ground seems to be asking for trouble. Images of the whole building doing the splits as the ground opens up beneath it come to mind.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
A gargantuan structure like that will only create a Utopian society that is fully dependent on the environment within the structure itself. Not only that, it will also create a huge gap in society, further creating a divide between the poor and the rich. Of course, only the rich can afford to live inside, and I can imagine a vast city of dilapidated buildings surrounding such huge structure, where the poor lives and they can only get jobs at minimum wages serving the utopian society.
Just imagine the amount of resources needed to support the population of a structure like that, and just imagine the amount of waste and garbage that will come from it. Even if they say the system is “ECO-FRIENDLY”, these structure will still be the biggest polluters on the planet.
August 21st, 2007 at 1:13 am
The picture of an enclosed green space is of a “Space Plateau” from the Sky City 1000 proposal. It too has an Extreme Engineering episode devoted to it, and is probably the most feasible of these imaginative concepts; my personal favourite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_1000
August 21st, 2007 at 1:44 am
Riiiight is right that there’s no debate about the CN tower, but wrong that it “does not apply”. That many do not consider the CN tower a building does not make it any less of a building than the other contenders, which it looks down on. The CN tower IS the worlds tallest building.
August 21st, 2007 at 3:31 am
Hum, I thought the Burj Dubai is(will be) the tallest? http://www.burjdubai.com/
August 21st, 2007 at 4:36 am
Looks like the Egyptian Architecture and the pyramids are still in the world with out any problem.
Dubai may come up with some ideas like this.
Did you see the Rotating sky scrapper ??
Video here
http://meninweb.blogspot.com/2007/05/dubai-skyscraper-with-68-rotating.html
August 21st, 2007 at 4:51 am
[…] que Sky City 1000 era algo casi imposible de realizar o por lo menos mientras yo viva, por medio de inhabitat conozco a X-SEED 4000, otro de esos proyectos que sólo quedaran para el […]
August 21st, 2007 at 5:37 am
Firstly, I don’t understand why anyone would even suggest earthquake issues, considering its being built in Tokyo I’m pretty the issue might have crossed their minds once or twice.
Secondly, if human kind didn’t aspire to make these types of things, we would still be sitting a fire throwing bones at each other rather than conversing across the internet.
Thirdly, how exciting! It does have that touch of Metropolis to it
James I’d say they will put a Japanese flag on it, since it would be built by Japanese people, working for Japanese companies in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. :P
August 21st, 2007 at 7:36 am
[…] Taisei Construction Corporation, has come up with plans for one such super city, and according to Inhabit: Looking eerily like Mt. Doom in the above rendering, the mountain-like X-Seed 4000 represents a […]
August 21st, 2007 at 7:38 am
Burj Dubai is still under construction but is already the tallest tower in the world. It’s designed to reach 2500ft +
August 21st, 2007 at 8:12 am
it scares me…
August 21st, 2007 at 8:17 am
[…] Taisei Construction Corporation, has come up with plans for one such super city, and according to Inhabit: Looking eerily like Mt. Doom in the above rendering, the mountain-like X-Seed 4000 represents a […]
August 21st, 2007 at 8:19 am
Burj Dubai will be taller than the spire of the CN Tower in just a couple weeks.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:40 am
I guess we haven’l learned very much yet about the “other” aspects of sustainability, like social and spiritual values, or reconnecting with the planet rather than finding ever grander ways to separate further from it.
This seems to me in many ways to be one more extreme fantasy extending from the early 20th century sci-fi stories (which turm grew out of biblical armageddon and apocolypse stories). Huh? Let me elaborate.
This way of thinking is based upon a techno-mechanistic storyline which allows an elite group of people to take to the stars while the rest of us poor sods perish with the drained, polluted and war-torn earth…seen in final cataclysm through the rear view mirror of the escaping spacecraft. Got it? We have seen and heard different vairations on the theme for 3 generations now, and when you tell people long enough what the future will hold, they roll over and accept the most astonishing developments as “a given” because they see them as inevitable. Witness Ronald Ray-guns and his Star Wars. And now this. An online community professing interest in promoting sustainable design seriously discussing an artificial community dependent on mecahnical technologies for survival. As if.
How many people in Tokyo could be better housed in human scaled dwellings for the same expense? How many local businesses could be spun out of that wad of cash, perhaps remanufacturing worthwhile goods from the stream of recyclable materials. Or growing food in city farms? This may not catch as much media attention, but would be a far better legacy for the amount spent. And would go further toward making life in Tokyo sustainable for everyone. As for the need to house ever-increasing numbers of people….. you can buy a lot of infrastructural improvements for that amount of money, and lure residents back to the smaller towns. For that matter, you could produce a massive amount of educational programmes to teach sustainable living skills across Japan.
August 21st, 2007 at 9:59 am
Frank Lloyd Wright had “Mile High” dreams back in 1956, but executed the concept in a much more elegant way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illinois
BTW, If you want a desktop version model Wright’s “Mile High” concept, follow the link:
http://prairiemod.typepad.com/prairiemod/2006/08/desktop_mile_hi.html
August 21st, 2007 at 12:02 pm
To even consider a project this costly might be an indicator that a government has money to spend. What about poverty, education, science, etc. 900 billion could take care of a gound dwelling society quite nicely. Or… pay for a human colony on Mars.
August 21st, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Buildings of this scale could become a necessity. I designed this as a warning though, not an aspiration…
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb108/jongreenslade/TheTowerOfLondonBlogfest01.jpg
August 21st, 2007 at 2:32 pm
[…] this thing better come with cannons and transform into a even bigger robot to defend Tokyo. [Inhabitat via Geekologie via Sci […]
August 21st, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I’m now designing the smallest housing structure in the world. I will house 1,000,000 atoms.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:37 pm
LOL @ “robots”
August 21st, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I use to work on the television show that show that project.. It was called Extreem Engineering aired on Discovry Channel , in case some of you guys want to look at this structure and how it will be build .
I work on the structure itself in 3D
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/engineering.html
August 21st, 2007 at 6:05 pm
1,000,000 people, and only 1 tennis court - that’s just poor planning
August 21st, 2007 at 6:17 pm
[…] World’s tallest tower to house 1 million people. [link] […]
August 21st, 2007 at 7:05 pm
[…] [Inhabitat] Articulos RelacionadosYa viene el dominio web para América LatinaPrograma tu arresto en el […]
August 21st, 2007 at 10:57 pm
you people are all ridiculous. this thing is awesome, it’s better than frank lloyd wright’s plans for
a mile high skyscraper. everyone hush up you’re scaring off progress
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:22 am
[…] מקור… […]
August 22nd, 2007 at 6:55 am
Currently, Japan houses about 850 people per square mile. 130 mil over 150,000 sq miles. This building has the potenetial to house 200 times that.
So as Japan’s population increases, those people can eat up 1200 square miles of Japan. Or they can leave that area alone and green, and pile on top of each other in this thing.
On top of that, it sounds like they plan to incorporate renewable energy sources. My guess is that the overall impact of a megastructure like this is smaller than sticking a million people elsewhere. I’m not saying their won’t be problems.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:16 am
[…] удовольствием поселился бы в таком доме (комменты после текста жгут). Это круто! Прямо как […]
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:19 am
Круто бля, я бы тут жил. Правда форточку на последних этажах не открыть.
(хуй).
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:15 am
What is the point of this thing? I understand the need to push boundaries, find new solutions, all that, but really what need would building this fulfill?
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Great. At least it won’t be a target.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
very-very familliar with tokyo sky city… [discovery channel]
d energy, safely, construction, transportation
let we see wht next
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Maybe I’m a bit too cynical, but multiple 30 story skyscrapers hanging from a carbon-fiber tube structure that is sitting on piers in the ocean floor, in an area prone to earthquakes, designed by engineers that probably design to minimum standards, and built by lowest bidder contractors that will no doubt cut corners to make a bigger profit, is not any place that I’d even want to be near, let alone live in.
It seems that the whole project would be better served by a lower and more solid structure. But that would ruin the whole “Mt. Fuji look” and “taller than you” bragging rights thing, wouldnt it?
As to the housing of a million people in one structure, Tokyo is probably about the only place that this could be done. Even there, I would think the population density would be pushed higher than many could deal with.
And then there’s the possibility of fire. Remember the World Trade Center?
August 22nd, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Just Imagine you live up there and you take the elevator every morning and you have to stop at almost each floor :S
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:05 pm
it sounds very cool but it wouldnt be true in the coming 20 years. i guess. it is nice to think abt it though.
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:34 am
I wonder how to cover the necessary sum, and with when the end of work. I am afraid of the risks (tremor, or sumani… etc), if they carries it, the damage will be enormous.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
obviously this designer is a huge BLADERUNNER fan. I wouldn’t want to live in that future or present. It’s a fantastical idea, but please, don’t build it.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Japanesse doesn`t sleep ! Respect !!!!
August 24th, 2007 at 8:07 am
well, like many others i am wondering what is the point/need to build a 4000 meters tall residence? How safe would you be on a top floor in a case of emergency/fire? even if you run it may take you an hour to get out. will air travel be safe? I think it is great and all to push engineering to its extremes and design these marvels, but it will be a worry if they start building something like this especially considering the cost.
August 24th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
I love how the americans always assume the rest of the world lives and dies by american standards.
Sea Wolf, if the Japanese had the land to waste the like US does, they wouldn’t be considering reclaiming yet more of Tokyo Bay for real estate.
And DriveBy, of course, is guilty of assuming the rest of the world is enthralled by the lowest possible price.
American myopia. Amusing if it weren’t so tragic.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
[…] Taisei Construction Corporation has unveiled some utopian plans for the world’s largest […]
August 24th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Godzilla will f that thing up with just a few stomps! Aaaaaarrrrrrgggh!
August 24th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
[…] looks fairly interesting engineering-wise, but for some reason, the image reminds me of a Hive city from Necromunda (Warhammer […]
August 24th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
As a base for a space elevator / tether, this city-in-a-building would make a lot more sense.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
“It’s all rather modernist isn’t it.”
I hate to break it to you, but modernism never actually ended.
August 25th, 2007 at 10:15 am
This sheds light on the least discussed issue of planning and economics, Population Growth Management.
The US will have 400 million people soon, Russia held a National Copulation Day two weeks ago to “thwart” their population “shortage,” China recently revised its child bearing policies, not to mention the explosive growth in Central and South Americas.
The issue really is about habitat and controlling our propensities for “growth.”
August 25th, 2007 at 10:19 am
[…] August 25th, 2007 in Uncategorized Skyscraper could hold 1 million people […]
August 25th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Somebody has been reading OATH OF FEALTY by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle and maybe Mack Reynolds. Anyway, they have prior claim.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
[…] from inhabitat Posted by daniel toh Filed in Bizzare, Skyscraper, Unique, Concept, […]
August 25th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
[…] Extract from inhabitat […]
August 25th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
[…] Dude. […]
August 25th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
[…] Inhabitat » X-SEED 4000: World’s tallest tower will house 1 million people […]
August 25th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
[…] How about this for a skyscraper? […]
August 25th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
[…] The X-Seed 4000, on the drawing board (but not yet funded, the costs are estimated at up to 900 million dollars) […]
August 26th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Here are the floorplans: http://clipurl.com/?OBM884
August 26th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Heh really wonderful project
In our Russian megalopolises like Moscow and St Petersburg will be bult SPINNING skyscrapers!
August 26th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I suppose someone’s already posted this, but where in the hell is Japan–with it’s 1.2 population replacement figures–going to get the people to fill it by the time it’s finished?
August 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
This is simply amazing, but I doubt it will be made. I hope it will, but it probably won’t.
August 26th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
[…] [Inhabitat] There’s a lot of debate about what the tallest tower in the world currently is. Some say the Taipei 101, at 1671 ft to the tip of it’s spire, is the world’s tallest tower, whereas we might argue that the Sears Tower, at a whopping 1731 ft (and 110 stories), still takes the prize. However, if the enormous, 13,000 ft X-Seed 4000 structure ever gets built in Tokyo - it will win the worlds-tallest-building competition hands down and leave its puny competitors in the dirt. […]
August 26th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
[…] 26th, 2007 link Posted by dancmorgan Filed in […]
August 28th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
If Japan is running out of space for its population, perhaps they should aim for negative population growth until land ceases to be an issue. Wouldn’t that be the greenest solution?
August 31st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
[…] What do you do in an overpopulated country? Build a skyscraper that is bigger then Mt Fuji. […]
September 6th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Japan is having negative pop growth and worst case estimates have them dropping about 30 - 50 million people by around 2050.
September 6th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Well in a certain future, such constructions may come in handy and be common to find… in a distant future… say in about a thousand years… if we become wise enough to be able to hope to get there…
September 18th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
wo truly an amazing building
September 18th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Wow*