tachycardia

Professor: Shelley Holliday

Collaborators: Nicholas Bolton, Chris Thackrey

 

Tachycardia: a heart rate that exceeds the normal range (noun).

The goal of this project was to design a 75-floor tower that uses a feasible and unique structure to ensure its stability. Tachycardia was inspired by ideas like a "crown-jewel" being carefully held in place, or a heart delicately hugged by arteries. To achieve this image, Tachycardia was made up of three main components. First, the base of the tower splits into two separate spires after about fifteen floors. Then from floors thirty to sixty, the "crown-jewel" develops and is supported by the two spires surrounding it. To emphasize the image of the "crown-jewel" these floors are plated in red glass. Tachycardia uses a trussed core around which the spires and the "crown-jewel" weave. Additionally, the spires are supported by auxillary cores in a diagrid pattern. The majority of the auxillary cores travel in the direction that the spires rotate, helping carry the loads of the floors to the ground.