The Largest Structure in the World

By Jan Gray

In Tokyo Japan space is very limited. With a population of about 12 and a half million people all crammed into a very small space of land problems are soon to erupt. With no more available land to build on there is only one solution. Make new land.

The Shimizu Pyramid is a proposed structure by Italian architect Dante Bini, that would be built on Tokyo Bay, directly on the water. Japan has already built the Osaka airport which was all constructed on an artificial island. Dubai, a city in the middle east has recently undertaken a similar project, building a giant artificial peninsula shaped like a palm tree.

The only difference with the Shimizu Pyramid is the sheer magnitude of the project. The pyramid would be over 2,000 meters tall, or about four times the height of the world trade center, with the area of the infrastructure being in the ball park of 88 square kilometers. The structure is expected to be fully sustainable for the some 800,000 residents who will live there.

To get an estimate of just how big this is imagine this. The pyramid will be constructed in sections of smaller pyramids, 55 to be exact, each of the smaller ones being about the size of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.

Transportation inside will be by individual autonomous pods that would travel within the hollow trusses of the structure.

But currently there are problems. With the current materials that are readily available the structure would collapse under its own weight. We are currently relying on carbon nanotubes, the third form of carbon discovered, which would be strong enough to hold the structure together.