Dubai's 'Technosphere' concept looks like the Death Star
Dubai’s skyline could soon be distinctively rounder if one firm’s vision comes to fruition.
Cybertecture, an architecture firm with James Law at the helm, has showcased a glass, spherical mixed-used building called the “Technosphere”.
The firm appears to be revisiting the concept that first made headlines in 2009 and the timing could be just right – as architecture site curbed noted, it does look a bit like the Death Star from Star Wars.
The building would feature a central, floor-to-ceiling atrium, an outer layer of glass with various openings and its own self-sustaining ecosystem, following the principles of ‘Planetary Cybertecture’.
The design is ‘derived from the Planet Earth’ itself, and the proposal is well-timed with the upcoming release of the latest movie franchise sequel.
The Hong Kong-based firm has come up with some other striking projects, such as the Indra Tower, inspired by a water droplet, the scaled-back Wadala Tower, envisaged as a dynamic twisting form with moving floor plates and a vertical urban forest, and the Cybertecture Egg.
However, the Technosphere is not the only Death Star-shaped building in the works. The Full Moon Hotel under construction in Baku, Azerbaijan, is a disc-shaped structure that resembles the Death Star from front-on. And also at one stage proposed for Dubai, the RAK Convention and Exhibition Centre by OMA, which was another glass-covered dome.
Dubai is known for its ambitious architecture and plans were unveiled earlier in the year to build a residential skyscraper with a rainforest inside, as well as the Floating Seahorse, a partially-submerged property development. It is home to Burj Khalifa, the tallest artificial structure in the world.
