DISCUSS: Most Futuristic Skyscraper

[Manila-X]

In KL besides the Petronas, the Menara Telekom looks futuristic

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by WANCH

It's restaurants yes but as a building, it's not as known as the other HK classics. I have never eaten their nor have never been on top but their restaurants have some of the best views of HK.

1 Peking Road is only a few years old. How can it be as known as the other 'classics' that are much older? That's quite contradictory. It's a new building and very visible from Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

[hkskyline]

This building in Berlin changes its face every few seconds. There are a few terminals on the street where you can peer in and supposedly the building's facade will show your face (or that's what we hoped). But we tried a few times and it didn't work.

[Marcanadian]

Interesting.

This is one of my favourite buildings in North America, One Wall Centre in Vancouver. I think it is pretty futuristic but unfortunatley not very well known around here.

[Manila-X]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

This building in Berlin changes its face every few seconds. There are a few terminals on the street where you can peer in and supposedly the building's facade will show your face (or that's what we hoped). But we tried a few times and it didn't work.

Any youtube videos for this? I wanna see the effect? Unless I get myself a ticket to Germany

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by WANCH

Any youtube videos for this? I wanna see the effect? Unless I get myself a ticket to Germany

You can check Youtube. I didn't take a video. If you do get to Berlin, it's in Potsdamer Platz, the main skyscraper area in the former West Berlin.

[Manila-X]

Here's one on the Berlin building

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTxBeK_cN0g

[hkskyline]

Toronto's Deep Lake Water Cooling and the City
http://www.toronto.ca/environment/in...es/cooling.htm

Enwave Energy Corporation, through partial financial backing from the City of Toronto as one of the two shareholders of Enwave, developed the Deep Lake Water Cooling system that uses the cool energy in cold water to air-condition high-rise buildings in downtown Toronto. The system benefits the City by:

- reducing energy consumption by up to 90 per cent (compared to conventional chillers)
- reducing carbon dioxide emissions
- improving the water supply by using new intake pipes that are deeper
- investing in a corporation in which the City is a shareholder

Enwave's three intake pipes draw water (4 degrees Celsius) from 5 kilometres off the shore of Lake Ontario at a depth of 83 metres below the surface. Naturally cold water makes its way to the City's John Street Pumping Station. There, heat exchangers facilitate the energy transfer between the icy cold lake water and the Enwave closed chilled water supply loop.

The water drawn from the lake continues on its regular route through the John Street Pumping Station for normal distribution into the City water supply. Enwave uses only the coldness from the lake water, not the actual water, to provide the alternative to conventional air-conditioning.

Metro Hall went online with Enwave's Deep Lake Water Cooling system in June 2006. With the addition of this building, energy consumption will be reduced by 1.7 million kilowatt-hours per year and reduce CO2 emissions by 1,915 tonnes annually - equivalent to taking 383 cars off the road. Metro Hall's savings are detailed below:

Power consumption - 1,740,480 kilowatt-hours per year less
Power saved is sufficient to supply 174 homes
Reduction in Water Consumption from Cooling Towers - 4,400 cubic metres per year less
Greenhouse Gas Reduction: Carbon Dioxide - 1,915 tonnes per year
Number of Cars with equivalent emissions - 383

There are 46 buildings signed on to the project, with 27 already connected.

[Erebus555]

Originally Posted by WANCH

Here's one on the Berlin building

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTxBeK_cN0g

Thats brilliant. I have been to the Pottsdamer Platz before and the buildings there are fantastic. That was the first thing that really made me want to move to Germany (havent moved yet as my German isn't upto scratch).


As for the most futuristic, there is a tower somewhere built in the 60s which looks like an observation tower but has three pods on it instead. I think it is near Niagara Falls... My memory is defeating me at this tender age. Not good. Anyway, this tower was really trying to be futuristic but it just reminds me of a low budget sci-fi film. Hold on - not the Skylon Tower...

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by Erebus555

As for the most futuristic, there is a tower somewhere built in the 60s which looks like an observation tower but has three pods on it instead. I think it is near Niagara Falls... My memory is defeating me at this tender age. Not good. Anyway, this tower was really trying to be futuristic but it just reminds me of a low budget sci-fi film. Hold on - not the Skylon Tower...

The only other tower in the Niagara Falls area is the Minolta Tower, which opened in the 60s :

[Erebus555]

Its not that. I think it may be in Germany. I'll do some research.

[Erebus555]

Its not the tower I was thinking of but the Telemax does seem quite futuristic in a way,

[Skybean]

Bank of China, Hong Kong


2IFC, Hong Kong


The Center, Hong Kong

[Manila-X]

The AIG Tower in Central looks futuristic as well especially the lighting effects and the video on the top.

Some 1980s buildings in HK can have a futuristic look thanks to the lighting effects. Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai can be an example of this. It may me decades old but it has a nice rotating ad sign at night.

[hkskyline]

Hopewell Centre itself isn't a futuristic building at all. You should visit some of the floors and the age of the building will jump out quite obviously. The floorplates are fairly narrow. However, it's not a very old building - 26 years old this year - and it was retrofitted with new external lighting. But then, so many Hong Kong buildings have that now. Even AIG's innovation is rather typical - a giant TV screen at the top followed by the typical neon lighting.

[Manila-X]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Hopewell Centre itself isn't a futuristic building at all. You should visit some of the floors and the age of the building will jump out quite obviously. The floorplates are fairly narrow. However, it's not a very old building - 26 years old this year - and it was retrofitted with new external lighting. But then, so many Hong Kong buildings have that now. Even AIG's innovation is rather typical - a giant TV screen at the top followed by the typical neon lighting.

Yes Hopewell Centre isn't futuristic but the external lighting and rotating sign gives the building a futuristic feel to it.

[Andrew]

Oh yeah, I remember just standing there and staring at the AIG building for ages when I was in Hong Kong. It looks great!

[hkskyline]

AIG's pedestrian bridge to the neighboring park is quite futuristic. It is a curvy bridge :

[Manila-X]

Yes it has a nice bridge. A little off topic but that's what I like about Central, the pedestrian bridges. It's very convenient and you don't have to walk in the streets especially on a hot summer day.

The AIG is now where the Furama was. But alot of old buildings in HK are being renovated and replacing it with glass and steel giving it a futuristic look.

[hkskyline]

Originally Posted by WANCH

Yes it has a nice bridge. A little off topic but that's what I like about Central, the pedestrian bridges. It's very convenient and you don't have to walk in the streets especially on a hot summer day.

The AIG is now where the Furama was. But alot of old buildings in HK are being renovated and replacing it with glass and steel giving it a futuristic look.

Glass cladding isn't particularly futuristic, and only the Mandarin Oriental is recladding in Central.