New York firm designs moving tower suspended from an asteroid

NEW YORK — There’s a bizarre new plan for what could be the world’s tallest building, and it’s literally out of this world. Instead of being built from the ground up, this futuristic skyscraper will be hanging down from the heavens.

Analemma Tower is the brainchild of New York City-based Clouds Architecture Office. On their website, the firm details a mind-bending proposal for a tower suspended via cables from an asteroid that’s been repositioned to orbit the earth.

The wandering skyscraper would be in a geosynchronous orbit, tracing a figure-8 path on its daily loop across the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

The proposal calls for the tower to be constructed in Dubai, where, according to Clouds Architecture, construction costs are one-fifth of those in New York. Once completed, the massive structure will then be taken to New York via orbital transfer.

With the upper part of Analemma constantly exposed to sunlight, power can be harnessed by space-based solar panels, while water can be filtered and recycled.

Residential units will be placed two-thirds of the way up, with lower floors reserved for business and entertainment use. The plans don’t specify how to get on and off the property, but illustrations suggest people would do so via parachutes.

With such an outrageous proposal, there’s no telling when, or if, the hanging tower will ever make it to the real world.