Anyone for 'landscrapers?'

Google has revolutionized the way we live – not a day goes by when we do not “google” for something or the other. In fact “google” has become a generic name for a search online.

And it is trying to change the way we look at buildings too. Skyscrapers are tall buildings, reaching into the sky. Heard of landscrapers? That’s a new thing and obviously coined by Google.

This is a horizontal tall building – visualize a skyscraper but not vertical, it is horizontal. That’s the kind of architecture it has chosen for its new campus in London’s King Cross district. Creating an office space for over 7000 employees, many say, the building could come to change the very shape of places where people work.

This office will be 1082 feet long; to put this in perspective, it is longer than Chrysler building and the New York Times building in Manhattan. It is in fact comparable with the Empire State building, which is 1250 feet; only this one will be horizontal!

Employees in this building might use elevators on this landscraper which go back and forth and also up and down. ThyssenKrupp recently sold one elevator to a building in Berlin, an elevator that moves up, down, sideways and even diagonally. It will have a roof top garden, indoor basketball court, running trails and a swimming pool too. The iconic landscraper will cost Google around US$1.3 billion.

Having such a landscraper in India seems difficult as such horizontally long buildings will require a lot of space and that is something we do not have. Maybe shorter landscrapers?