Carbon Neutral Ziggurat City Could House 1 Million

In a series of renderings, Dubai-based environmental design firm Timelinks recently displayed their grand ambitions to design and build a carbon neutral city in the form of a pyramid. Appropriately named the Ziggurat, this incarnation of the ancient design would make Las Vegas' Luxor and the Pyramids of Giza look like a series of ant hills. The firm plans to officially unveil their vision at this year's Cityscape Dubai event, being held from October 6 - 9.

The gargantuan eco-pyramid would take up 2.3 square kilometers and supposedly house up to a million souls. Most importantly however, Timelinks proposes that the Ziggurat will be completely self sustaining, with no reliance on the outside energy grid. It would be so by using wind and steam power along with other natural resources. The city-building would also be equipped with a kind of three-dimensional, super efficient mass transit system that would run both horizontally and vertically. Plans also call for both public and private green spaces to be used for agriculture.

The International Institute for the Urban Environment, apparently impressed by the idea and the technologies it employs, believes the Ziggurat will make a viable metropolis. In response to the accolade, Timelinks is now moving to patent the design and the various incorporated technologies. The Cityscape conference will also feature a panel of professors who will explain how the Ziggurat design might fit into the grander scheme of future city planning.

Although the Ziggurat appears to be something from the distant future, something special seems to be going on in Dubai recently. Between the artificial islands, the Burj el Arab - the world's next tallest building, and the blinding speed with which the city is developing, it would not surprise me to see a project of this scope started in the not to distant future. With only about 2.2 million people living in the city to begin with, I'm not sure they'd be able to fill one of these Ziggurats, though.

[via Inhabitat]