A self-sufficient skyscraper in Hong Kong

In a bold attempt to create a building that contains practically everything humans could need to survive, architects at Studio Cachoua Torres Camilletti have designed a multimulti-purpose skyscraper for Hong Kong.

Called Rice Terraces, the design is an effort to meld agricultural space and big cities. It features two uniquely shaped towers connected by braces, trusses and bridges. The larger tower on the right would be for commercial use, with space for offices, retail, and entertainment.

The thinner tower on the left would be for residential use, with lobbies that contain transparent bridges connected to the commercial tower. Some of the more unusual features of the building are a rain water collector on top, an algae facade, floor-sized fish farms and water filters, and a nuclear reactor in the underground parking garage.

True to its name, the bodies of the towers would be actual rice paddies. The Mexico City-based architects said they were "inspired by the idea of natural rock canyons and found poetry in their contours and in the way that they generate their duality, a male and a female shape, which could be joined together."

While Rice Terraces could be entirely powered by renewable energy, there are no plans to actually build it at this time. Cachoua Torres Camilletti is currently betting that the next generation of nuclear reactors, like those defined as 4S (Super, Safe, Small and Simple) will power the tower.