A 42nd-floor `skybridge´ in the dazzling Raffles City project could help solve overcrowding - or will it simply let the super-rich escape to the skies?An army of 6,000 construction workers is hard at work at a large site overlooking the conflux of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in the south-western Chinese megacity of Chongqing. Eight skyscrapers are rising from the river banks: two above 350m and six above 250m. Raffles City Chongqing, a project headed by the architect Moshe Safdie, will boast 134,000 sq m of homes, shops, offices, entertainment, transportation links and a public park. It also features a more unusual claim to fame: a `horizontal skyscraper` 300m in length, stretching across four of the main towers at the 42nd floor. With the building situated in an earthquake zone, it `floats` on top of the towers to create the necessary sway.In these dense cities like Chongqing there´s no room for big public parks, so we have to lift them into the skyThe risk is that you can design this architectural feat that ends up only being relevant for a small number of people Continue reading...
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