On Architect David Fisher’s Wind-Friendly Skyscraper

In the 1980s, not long after Israeli-born architect David Fisher graduated with honors from the University of Florence’s School of Architecture, Fisher established his own architecture firm, Fitecto Ltd., in New York. He later went on to found Dynamic Architecture Group. He is the revolutionary designer of a new kind of skyscraper condominium that harnesses the power of wind, both for energy as well as to rotate floors around a central axis independently of each other. Fisher calls his design method “dynamic architecture” because it moves throughout time, thereby incorporating the fourth dimension. He had hoped to finish construction on his first building called the “dynamic tower”, an eighty-story skyscraper with rotating floors, by 2010. Unfortunately, the project is yet to be realized, but it’s still a fascinating idea.

Digital rendering of the skyscraper

According to Fisher’s design, each floor of the building would be able to move independently of each other at variable rates, allowing lucky residents to watch the sunrise and sunset from the same window. Fisher said he was inspired by a visit to a friend’s loft in Midtown Manhattan where he said, “I had a view of the Hudson River and East River at the same time, it was beautiful and I wanted to make that feeling accessible to more people.” It may sound a little disorienting, but Fisher assures that it would take three hours for the full rotation of a floor, giving occupants a panoramic show rather than a case of vertigo. Each floor would converge at a narrow central column with an elevator to bring residents up to their apartments.

Digital rendering of construction phase

Fisher noted that for centuries we have been trying to work against wind and the challenges it poses for architecture, and he asks why not work with the wind instead? By placing photovoltaic solar cells and wind turbines horizontally between the floors, Fisher planned to harvest natural energy, creating a self-powered, completely green building. Apparently, the system would even generate an excess of energy, with enough left over to power nearby buildings.

Floor layout

Although he admits that the first residents will have to be very wealthy (the projected cost is $3,000 per square inch), Fisher believes that his technology will revolutionize global building strategies and will eventually become the model for a great deal of residents. Aside from the wind-powered rotation, the building would also be special for its pre-fabricated elements, produced at an industrial facility in Italy and shipped to Dubai. It would be one of the first factory produced buildings in the world. This factory construction is partly possible because of the same modular design that allows it to rotate. Fisher believes the prefabricated design will also influence global building technology, and could eventually become the main method of production for new buildings in the future.

Does Fisher’s dynamic tower sound a bit too futuristic to you? Does it sound like it’s been pulled out of a science-fiction novel or a video game? Well, perhaps. It could be many years before a design like David Fisher’s is built – most likely due to the sheer cost of production – but the technology for it does exist. And you’ve got to admit that it’s a very cool design. From design to production to construction, Fisher’s forward-thinking idea puts a new spin on wind-friendly skyscrapers.

On Beijing Airport’s Terminal Roof Disaster

Beijing’s Capital International Airport is the second busiest airport in the world. Naturally, when they undertook construction of the third and most recent terminal in 2004, investors poured in large sums of money for the project that ended up costing $2.8 billion. A team that consisted of UK architecture firm Foster and Partners, the Netherlands Airport Consultants, and engineering firm ARUP designed the newest terminal. Opened in 2008, it is the largest terminal in the world to be completed in a single phase and is second in size only to one of Dubai International Airport’s terminals. The high-profile project, which was commissioned by the Chinese government in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was considered to be great publicity. That’s why it came as a big surprise to many when the roof of the terminal took flight last November during a bout of particularly high winds.

Beijing's Capital International Airport

On November 24, 2011, winds moving at speeds of 53 miles per hour tore metal plates off the roof of the terminal, delaying 200 flights and cancelling 28. It was the second time in under a year the roof had been damaged – in December 2010, similar winds damaged two sections of the roof and delayed another 200 flights. Although the roof was tested to withstand significantly higher speeds before opening, no one seems willing to take the blame for the mishaps.

Just after the wind storm

Shao Weiping of the Beijing Architectural Design and Research Institute, one of the firms involved in the construction, blames poor materials rather than admitting design flaws. He told reporters, “If the products provided by the suppliers were not up to their highest standards, or if the individual items were not installed properly, then this kind of thing could happen,” and asserted he was “very confident that the design was perfect and involved no mistakes or flaws.” At the same time, airport authorities looked the other way, explaining that they were just using the building, they were not responsible for designing it.

High winds at Capital International Airport

Some see the issue with the roof as indicative of a larger problem in contemporary Chinese construction. An enormous building boom costing trillions annually has been responsible for a wide array of new infrastructure and construction including high-speed trains, superhighways, and airport terminals. However, the breakneck speed at which projects are being completed often leaves room for design flaws and has resulted in a number of accidents. The speed of construction has jeopardized citizen and tourist safety a number of times. For example, in 2009 a construction related fire at CCTV, a Chinese television network’s headquarters, killed a firefighter, and in 2011 two bullet trains collided, killing 40 people and injuring 177.

Entry to the subway line that connects to Terminal 3

Capital International Airport has been running smoothly for the last few months. However, the series of structural problems are prime examples of what can go wrong when quality of construction I sacrificed for speed of project completion. Although new construction may look polished and impressive, the real value of a building can only be proved over time.

Southern Tempest

When we think of the month of December, we imagine a white blanket of snow dusting the ground and trees. We don’t usually picture brush fire caused by 100 m.p.h. winds, but that’s how folks in Southern California experienced this past December. If you’ve ever lived south of Los Angeles, you are no stranger to Santa Ana winds, the powerful gusts of hot air that sweep in from the Great Basin in the fall and early winter.

The winds are formed when masses of cold air blowing over high dessert plateaus in Utah and Nevada begin to move southwest, becoming dryer and more powerful as they progress. When they’re temperate, the Santa Ana winds contribute to Southern California’s famously bucolic weather by warming the winter air and pushing pollution out to sea. This past winter, however, California residents saw the most ferocious case of Santa Anas recorded since the National Weather Service began measuring wind speeds in the 1930s.

The name is said to have originated from an anglicized version of the phrase “vientos de Satán”, meaning the devil’s winds, and are sometimes called “the devil’s breath”. While they just as likely could have been named after the Santa Ana Mountains, which extend thirty-six miles southeast of Los Angeles along the border of Riverside and Orange County, their scorching heat and propensity to start forest fires definitely qualifies them to be named for the devil. The winds are particularly strong in Orange County, although their effects can be felt across Southern California, especially in record-breaking years like 2011, as the winds extend from the Mexican border as far north as San Francisco.

The dry, brush-covered hills that roll through Southern California already pose a serious wildfire hazard to the region; the hot, arid Santa Anas can fan small fires, spreading them across miles of canyon land. That’s exactly what happened in Malibu and several other cities in Southern California in early December when the winds reached speeds equal to a category 2 two hurricane and swept fire through more than six hundred square miles. Over two thousand homes and buildings were destroyed and half a million residents were evacuated to areas like San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium. Architects and engineers (along with insurance agents!) have not only Santa Ana winds to consider, but also the spread of fire caused by those very winds.

Some have speculated that 2011’s extreme case of Santa Anas was a result of global warming leading to more intense weather conditions. However, some scientists, including Dr. David Easterling of the National Climatic Data Center, say that the increase in temperature as a result of climate change will actually lessen the strength of the winds. As the air warms in the Great Basin, it will be pushed more slowly towards warmer regions in the southwest; so over the next twenty-five years we can expect to see tamer Santa Anas. That’s not to say that other extreme weather events will not accelerate, and Dr. Easterling points out that because precipitation and heat waves are on the rise, residents of flood-plain areas will have to be more cautious.

Whatever the future of the winds may be they have certainly intrigued, enraged, and inspired many. The contemporary band The Cold War Kids have a song named after them, and we will leave you with a quote that captures the Santa Ana essence from novelist Raymond Chandler’s short story “Red Wind”:

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that…anything can happen.”