Firm Aims to Free Building Design via Elevators
FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2018
A London architecture firm is researching ways to bend the rules when it comes to the structure of a skyscraper. The piece of the puzzle keeping innovation flatlined? Elevators.
SkyPod Sights
Lars Hesselgren, Head of Research at London’s PLP Architecture firm, revealed his latest design for the “SkyPod” last month at Elevcon, the 22nd International Congress on Vertical Transportation Technologies, in Berlin.
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Lars Hesselgren, Head of Research at London’s PLP Architecture firm, revealed his latest design for the “SkyPod” last month at Elevcon, the 22nd International Congress on Vertical Transportation Technologies, in Berlin.   |
PLP proposes the replacement of a vertical elevator shaft with a track-based multi-directional transport system. Likened to a cross between a traditional elevator and a roller coaster, the SkyPod would be based on maglev technology, which uses a system of magnets that simultaneously pull and repulse.
“If current skyscrapers often feel monolithic, self-contained and sometimes indifferent to their context, SkyPod will allow for new types of buildings that, despite their height, are holistically integrated with the grain of the city around them,” the firm says.
“The elevator has been a primary influence on the shape and appearance of the modern city to date. We believe that its inevitable demise will be the catalyst for the next chapter in the formal life of the city.”
Tagged categories: Building envelope; Building Envelope; Color + Design; Condominiums/High-Rise Residential; Design build
