
Skyscraper design combines cryptocurrency mining with vertical water park - Reedx
https://www.archdaily.com/918389/tehran-skyscraper-combines-cryptocurrency-mining-with-vertical-water-park
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walrus01
I chuckled at the number of people in this thread who don't seem to grasp the
concept of an intentionally ridiculous or improbably difficult to build
architectural concept rendering. Like this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-
City_Pyramid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimizu_Mega-City_Pyramid)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Seed_4000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Seed_4000)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_1000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_City_1000)

Closest real world inspiration I can think of is this.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_building](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd%27s_building)

If you think someone is _seriously_ proposing a 560 meter tall
waterpark/cryptocurrency mining tower... I have a bridge to sell you?

It's named after the JCPOA nuclear deal, which no matter what side of the
issue you're on, has significant follow on effects on Iran's civilian economy.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Ac...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Comprehensive_Plan_of_Action)

~~~
bathtub365
It’s really a great political/art piece but it takes reading a few paragraphs
of the article to realize it.

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nickff
I find these 'design concepts' vexing; they consist of renders of impossible
or non-existent materials and technologies. Are they intended as some sort of
'science fiction product designs', or do the creators believe that they can
will things into being? And why do the concepts get so much press coverage?

I'm sure these renders look great in a portfolio, but as someone who does (a
little) industrial design, I find unconstrained designs a bit pointless.

~~~
contingencies
_I find unconstrained designs a bit pointless._

Competition's problem statement is at
[https://www.e-architect.co.uk/competitions/evolo-2020-skyscr...](https://www.e-architect.co.uk/competitions/evolo-2020-skyscraper-
competition) ... remember architects are not engineers. It's much easier to
break than to build. What would you have proposed?

~~~
nickff
I probably wouldn't bother to enter these sorts of competitions, even if I
were an architect, as anything realistic would lose.

I mostly design plastic enclosures, and assemblies for electronic products,
and have to keep manufacturability top-of-mind.

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happytoexplain
Tehran _concept_ skyscraper combines cryptocurrency mining with vertical water
park.

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curtis3389
Is this a joke?

It says that it's "Disconnected From the Power Grid" with "Self Powered
Sustainable System Including Generators" and "Taking Advantage of Water Flow
for Cooling and Generating Electricity".

I can't think of a way that this works in reality. Electricity costs for the
servers would be huge, and you still gotta pump water to the top of that
tower.

~~~
toohotatopic
Must be rain water, that comes from above.

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kanobo
The idea is stupid af, but the illustrations are really charming and fun.

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graysonpike
The article says that the tower is a "self powered sustainable system
including generators" and hydroelectric power. It also claims the tower would
be disconnected from the grid. I wonder how many generators they expect to
use?

~~~
duskwuff
Their theory seems to be that they could put a turbine into the water park to
generate electricity. Which is obviously nonsense, and a great illustration of
why open-ended "design competitions" like this are useless.

~~~
redisman
Duh, you just use the power generated from the water to pump the water right
back up to the top. And to mine crypto. And there's unlimited free cotton
candy. Because a 12 year old came up with the concept.

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rjmunro
I can't believe this isn't the Onion or something. It was hilarious.

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vmception
at what point is it substantive to say this is dumb

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kanobo
I think the moment the word cryptocurrency was used in the same sentence as
skyscraper.

~~~
bitxbitxbitcoin
Hopefully a nonstupid example of skyscraper and cryptocurrency being used in
the same sentence...

A skyscraper might not be the safest place to store a cryptocurrency private
key - many companies use bunkers instead!

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ninju
Should add "conceptual" or "design of" to the title otherwise it's a bit
click-baity

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ogre_codes
To get this off grid, are they planning on having the guests have to carry a 5
gallon bucket of water every trip and spend 30 minutes on pedal power
generators for every lap?

Also, if this is supposed to be some kind of covert way to mine crypto... they
failed at go.

~~~
Udik
> they failed at go

Do you even realise what you're commenting about? A 500 metres tall water park
with slides to _hide_ a giant crypto farm to save a country of 80 million from
a near total embargo? Come on.

~~~
vmception
This sounds like one of those procedurally generated Netflix shows

.... they are procedurally generated right?

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lxe
Both the headline and the serious tone of the article makes people here very
confused thinking this is a real plausible thing that will help Iran's
economy.

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m3kw9
I can imagine broken sewage pipe juices flowing down the circular slides

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bawana
They could get even more traction by adding a blockchain ride.

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mcculley
This reads like a headline invented by GPT-3.

~~~
dane-pgp
Or a prompt given to GPT-3 to have it write the rest of the article.

Does someone here with access to GPT-3 want to try? Would we know if this was
how the linked article was written?

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dajohnson89
(2019)

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aminozuur
It looks cool. But talk and concepts are cheap, I hope they actually build it.

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sanguy
So the real reason? Far less likely for the US to Tomahawk a crypto mining
organization if it looks like a waterpark and has kids in the structure.

In civilized worlds we don't use children as shields.

~~~
dane-pgp
In civilized worlds, we don't fire Tomahawk missiles at crypto mining server
farms.

But sure, maybe Iran are the bad guys in this hypothetical scenario.

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tathougies
You could do this, or you could stop being a theocratic dictatorship? One
sounds a lot easier IMO.

~~~
decafbad
Not even close. What they want is their natural resources. Nobody in USA gives
a crap about Iranian people's problems.

~~~
gpm
This is why the US has sanctioned Norway?

As near as I can tell the criteria for the us government getting involved is
you have natural resources _and_ you mistreat your people. Neither one alone
seems to be sufficient.

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gruez
>As near as I can tell the criteria for the us government getting involved is
you have natural resources and you mistreat your people. Neither one alone
seems to be sufficient.

the US seems to be pretty chill about saudi arabia, which does have oil _and_
mistreats people. I'm sure the rest of the countries around that region aren't
exactly a bastion of human rights either.

~~~
vmception
Thats because the US requires juvenile moral arguments to maintain support for
things that have nothing to do with juvenile moral arguments.

It derives it’s power from a population that has little history, prophecies or
goals in common, so childish moral high ground is all it has to continue
stewarding its massive resource appropriation efforts.

