Monday, November 16, 2009

Zero-Power Digital Cloud

What else can you expect when the next Olympic is held in London 2012? It sure gonna be the architecture that is gonna steal the show other than the opening ceremony and the world breaking record part just like what just happened during the Beijing Olympic. Zero-Power Digital Cloud will be the next big show coming up.

No, we're not talking about "the cloud" where data goes to disappear and (hopefully) be retrieved again. We're talking about an actual (well, artificial) cloud that promises to be both a real structure and a massive digital display. That's the bright idea of a team of researchers from MIT, anyway, and it's now been shortlisted in a competition designed to find a new tourist attraction to be built in London for the 2012 Olympics. Dubbed simply "The Cloud," the structure would consist of two 400-foot tall mesh towers that are linked by a series of interconnected plastic bubbles, which would themselves house an observation deck inside and be used to display everything from Olympic scores and highlights to a "barometer of the city's interests and moods" outside (that latter bit comes courtesy of the group's partnership with Google). As if that wasn't enough, the whole thing also promises to be funded entirely by micro-payments from the public (which would also determine its final size), and be completely self-powered, with it relying on a combination of solar power and regenerative braking from the lifts in the towers.


The CLOUD!

Ramps, stairs, and lifts would carry tourists to the top of the cloud. Once inside the structure, viewers would have a sweeping view of the city below. Despite displaying a constant stream of data, the cloud wouldn’t take any power from the grid.


I would like to cycle all the way up and down. It will be a good experience I bet! =)


Circle thingy (Clouds) function as TV broadcasting LIVE events. This is dope!


Simply awesome!

Even if the Cloud isn’t chosen as the winner in the city’s competition, the MIT designers are determined to build it. To that end, they have launched a fund raising website in the hopes that millions of people will provide small donations. Well, if this is really chosen as the winner, I bet I am have to launched a fund raising for my ticket to London too! XD