New Carbon Fiber Elevator Cables to Make Mile High Buildings Feasible

An article in Syfy Dvice suggests that one obstacle to building really tall building, as high as one mile, has been overcome due to the invention of a new type of elevator cable called UltraRope by a Finish company called Kone.

One of the limiting factors in the height of buildings is the weight of elevator cables. If one proposes to have an express elevator from the ground floor to the upper floors of a tall building, using steel cables can become more problematic the higher one goes and the more cable is needed. By 500 meters the cables weight three times more than the fully loaded elevator car and the counterweight.

Kone has developed carbon fiber cable that it reports is twice as strong as steel, lasts longer, and is 90 percent lighter. This means that the idea of a mile high building, a dream since Frank Lloyd Wright first proposed one in the 1950s, may become a reality.

The Houston Chronicle suggested recently that there are no technological show stoppers for building a mile high skyscraper. The questions arise, why build one and who would be the first to build it?

Wright's concept, called the Illinois, would have contained 100,000 people and, with space for shops, offices, theaters, and concert halls as well as apartments. It would have been, in effect, a small town all in one building. There would be parking for 15,000 cars and pads for 100 helicopters. The building would have its own atomic power plant. One could conceivably live and work in such a building and rarely if ever go outside.

Massively high skyscrapers are seen by some to be an alternative to urban sprawl. Instead of occupying a lot of land with buildings, roads, and other structures, why not build upwards?

Who would be the first to build a mile high building? Bloomberg recently noted that there seems to be a building race in the Middle East and East Asia with countries in that region competing with one another to see who can build the highest building. The highest building under construction is to be the Kingdom Tower under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, due to top out one kilometer by 2018. The race seems to be driven by oil money and ego as much as any demand such buildings have. However populous countries such as China and India might fight building upwards to be a solution for housing problems.