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If New York realized only half of the insane plans for skyscrapers that have been cropping up over the past couple of years, the city would be a much more interesting place; instead, the skyline is marred by the likes of Billionaires Row. When it comes to such proposals, however, there’s crazy and then there’s cray-cray, and the latter doesn’t even begin to describe the latest out there building idea.
The plan in question comes courtesy of design magazine Evolo and its annual Skyscraper Competition. For 2017, the sky has been definitely exceeded as a limit by this year’s Honorable Mention winner: A project called the Human Castell, the brainchild of an architectural team from New Zealand.
Now, you may be asking, what the hell is a castell? Good question. Actually, it’s the name used in Catalonia for towers of people standing on each other's shoulders. They pop up at local festivals, and this folk custom provides the inspiration for a structure that looks a bit like a wedding cake made up of ascending levels of domes, pillars and gates. Each of these elements, in turn, is festooned with dozens upon dozens of figurative sculptures that seem to be climbing all over each other like the zombies in World War Z. They’re supposed to be made out of 3D printed concrete and fall into the three thematic sections that also define the building: “hostility and desire,” “euphoria and pleasure” and “resentment and desperation.” Taken as a whole, the tower symbolizes the “myths and tales” of city life.
Evolo
The Human Castell doesn’t have any walls, so it’s open to the elements. In that respect, it’s more like the Eiffel Tower than it is like an office building or luxury condo. It will never get built in a million years, but we can dream, can’t we?
Evolo