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It's been 10 long years since the last Star Wars movie hit theatres. Now, the science fiction franchise continues with its seventh installment, released in North American cinemas today. The cultural impact of Star Wars has been monumental, with references to the films now commonplace across media. Star Wars culture has also punctured the world of architecture. The fanciful designs depicted in the movies have inspired several daring architects to bring some of their building elements to life.
One of the movie franchise's most lasting images is that of the Death Star, a structure several orders of magnitude larger than anything ever conceived in reality. Here on earth, Dubai is just about the closest thing we have to Coruscant, boasting futuristic towers stretching several hundred metres into the sky. While Rem Koolhaas' firm OMA originally produced plans for a 44-storey spherical building resembling the planet-destroying space station, a similar design from James Law Cybertecture could be coming to the desert city.
The mixed-use Technosphere is enveloped in glass and a diagrid structure, with sporadic cutouts in the facade that host lush gardens. A core atrium stretches from the ground to the roof and provides natural light to the interior of the hotel, office, and residential complex. Though the building does have a similar appearance to the Death Star, its greenery and glass colour is meant to mimic Earth. The development would create a self-contained ecosystem of sorts, generating its own solar power and recycling water to minimize waste.
Situated in Dubai's Technopark, the structure would be the largest spherical building in the world. The proposal was originally unveiled in 2009, but the Hong Kong-based Cybertecture seems to be revisiting the plans. Technosphere is not the only Death Star-shaped building to be envisioned. Full Moon Rising in Baku includes an opening near the top reminiscent of the concave superlaser cannon affixed to the fictional facility.
Advances in technology are quickly making previously impractical ideas more realistic. Dubai has become a testing ground of innovation for projects like the Technosphere, which if constructed, would certainly add another unique edifice to the city's already whimsical cityscape.
Are there any other Star Wars-inspired buildings you know of? Let us know by leaving a comment in the field below!
