Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

Just thought I would point out that I think Ƥ. Ɗ. Kirĸe misunderstood something about the pyramid. While he is right that it probably isn't ever going to be practical, and definitely won't be for a long time if it ever does become so, I don't think he understood the design idea very well.

The Pyramid is basically a bubble city, so while the entire structure is a pyramid, most people would probably be living in buildings like sky scrapers. So the only difference really between it and a regular city is that there is a big wall of glass, and a supporting infrastructure, a couple miles away. So it would be kind of like living in a house in a giant greenhouse.

At least that is how I understand it.

You're right, Fred, in that he skyscraper type buildings are suspended in the pyramid itself. Although, I'm pretty sure that they nixed the idea of putting the glass all around the pyramid. I think they were/are (I highly doubt that it will ever be built...) just going to leave it open.

Hmm. If it's not enclosed, then there doesn't seem to be much point in building the giant superstructure.

I think its basically because they don't have anymore room on the ground there, so their putting it in the water. The whole thing seems like kind of a dumb idea to me, though. If the glass was on it, the force of the wind could cause it to break or something like that. They asked these wind testers (who knew there was such a profession!) who had done some pyramid casino or something in Vegas and they said that having glass on Shimizu's Pyramid could be a hazard...

Well, sure. If it was glass. But you could easily make injection molded (or machined) polycarbonate windows that could withstand it. It would put a lot of stress on the superstructure, I suppose, but the windows themselves wouldn't be a hazard.

Good call.

Fredjikrang wrote:Just thought I would point out that I think Ƥ. Ɗ. Kirĸe misunderstood something about the pyramid. While he is right that it probably isn't ever going to be practical, and definitely won't be for a long time if it ever does become so, I don't think he understood the design idea very well.

The Pyramid is basically a bubble city, so while the entire structure is a pyramid, most people would probably be living in buildings like sky scrapers. So the only difference really between it and a regular city is that there is a big wall of glass, and a supporting infrastructure, a couple miles away. So it would be kind of like living in a house in a giant greenhouse.

At least that is how I understand it.

Man, are you disagreeing with the writers yet again?

It is tempting to go over the top with this, and say you shouldn't "go off" on every little thing, and we can count on you defending pyramids, right or wrong, and all that. But, that would be just plain obnoxious.

Okay, I apologize for my previous remarks impugning your objectivity. I was out of line. Forgive me?