The Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid is a proposed

Shimizu Corporation is an architectural, civil engineering and 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 20 in the world. It is a family bu ...

project for the construction of a massive self-sustaining

arcology Arcology, a portmanteau of "architecture" and "ecology",. is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated and ecologically low-impact human habitats. The term was coined in 1969 by architect Paolo Soleri, who be ...

-pyramid over

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...

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 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 that the assembl ...

es, each with similar dimensions to that of the

Great Pyramid of Giza The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, ...

. 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 Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the ...

. 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 scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers. ''Single-wall carbon na ...

s and

graphene Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure.

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.

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 or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

, 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, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick' ...

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 traveled to patent offices the world over to patent their idea internationally.

Materials and construction process

The pyramid's

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

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 region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions and ...

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 earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

and

tsunamis A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) 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 other underwater expl ...

. 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 us ...

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

pond scum Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mi ...

or algae.

Robotic Robotics is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist human ...

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, and a

personal rapid transit Personal rapid transit (PRT), also referred to as podcars or guided/railed taxis, is a public transport mode featuring small low-capacity automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guideways. PRT is a type of automated guideway ...

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. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

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

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120825041721/http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/try.html TRY 2004-Shimizu's Dream - Shimizu Corporation (Project site) {{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

History

Materials and construction process

Interior traffic and buildings

See also

References

External links