You Deserve A Garbage Skyscraper!

Monument of Civilization: Vertical Landfill for Metropolises

Thanks to Anne Schmidt for the inspiration...

Skyscraper is always considered more as an icon, a statue, a representation of wealth, a proof of advanced technology, anything but a reasonable form of space for mankind's living. Underlying our claim to purpose new urban typology, compact/mixed use of vertical space and so forth are our greediness and arrogance. Most of the cases, we build towers for towers' sake.

From super-tall to mega-tall, it's all about being spectacular. But we do have something spectacular already, something all cities shared; something could be even more magnificent if we put them in display. Our waste-an outcome of our daily consumptions- is produced in amazingly great amount every second everywhere and can be seen as the representation of our civilization. New York, for instance, if we put its annual garbage on a area of a typical tower footprint, we'll get a 1300 meters high landfill tower, which is about as three times tall as the Empire State Tower(450M). Isn't that spectacular? Furthermore, a large portion of our garbage is non-recyclable and will last for hundreds or even thousands of years, they are to be the greatest material for the monument, if the monument is to let our descendants to memorize (or to mourn) our own civilization.

But this Monument of Civilization isn’t all that ironic. It meets certain demands of a city. Firstly, our cities, specially the big ones, had suffered from shortage of landfill for the last decades. While the cities grew bigger, we had less land and farther “outskirt” for garbage dumping. Vertical landfill should solve this problem. Landfills should go vertical like buildings do, since they are both in direct proportion to population growth. Secondly, the accumulation of waste actually creates potential energy-recycle such as gas emission during erosion. When the gas is recollected from the vertical landfill, it can generate power and be reused in the city. Putting the Monument in the center of the city allows it to benefit the city directly and also save the cost from transporting garbage outside the city. Lastly, the Monument can be seen as the city’s Earth-Friendliness measure meter. The lower the tower is, or the slower it grows, the more earth-friendly the city is. The ever-growing Monument may evoke the citizens’ introspection and somewhat leads to the entire city’s waste-decreasing and better recycling. Perhaps all metropolitan cities would inverse the worldwide competition from competing being the “tallest” to being the “shortest”.

The architecture of the Monument is very simple. The underground parts are recycle processing, waste-water processing, gas and power stations, temporary dump, and wasted water tank. The upper part (tower) consists of garbage brick wall, recycled energy transmission layers, and vertical solid-waste tank enclosed by the garbage brick wall. The site is not specific, but is purposed to be put in the center of the city. Take New York for example, it is suggested to be put in the most popular spot: Times Square, for its purpose- as being a monument- of being most viewed.

Every city should has one garbage skyscraper to solve landfill shortage, to feed one's vanity of height, and to remark mankind's icronic civilization. Enjoy!

©2012 Roy Lin