A pair of proposed kilometer-tall skyscrapers in Wuhan, China, will do more than beat the world record for the world’s tallest building. Aside from being a horrible place for vertigo patients, the buildings attempt to solve every major ecological crisis faced by central China.

A pair of proposed kilometer-tall skyscrapers in Wuhan, China, will do more than beat the world record for the world’s tallest building. Aside from being a horrible place for vertigo patients, the buildings attempt to solve every major ecological crisis faced by central China.

Located in the pollution capital of the planet, the structures will be named “The Phoenix Towers,” in the hopes that their novel technology and architecture can resurrect the city from its ashes. 

“They don’t just stand there and become an iconic symbol of Wuhan; they have to do a job,” project architect Laurie Chetwood said in an interview with Dezeen. “We've applied as many environmental ideas as we possibly could to justify the shape and the size of them."

Protruding from the ground like two giant stalagmites, the buildings will be constructed on an island in the middle of a lake. The taller building, paired with another slightly shorter tower, will work together beyond the usual sustainable design features to restore the surrounding environment.

The towers also have pollution-absorbing coatings to help clean the air and vertical gardens that filter more pollution. A chimney in the middle of the larger tower naturally pulls air across the lake for better ventilation. The taller tower also features a wind turbine, which will allow it to power itself as well as the smaller tower, a feature inspired by the give-and-take concept of yin and yang. Using water from that lake we just mentioned, it returns nothing but filtered oxygen to the environment.

“The water goes up through a series of filters,” explained Chetwood to business magazine Fast Company. “We don’t use power to pull the water up, we’re using passive energy. As it goes through the filters and back, we’re also putting air back into the lake to make it healthier.”

Tall buildings require a lot of power, but Adele Peters of Fast Company reports “Wind turbines, lightweight solar cladding, and hydrogen fuel cells running on the buildings’ waste will generate all of the power used by the towers, plus a little extra for the rest of the neighbourhood.”

Take that, power problems. Oh, and did we mention that spheres hanging between the two towers will hold restaurants with views of the lake?

But the timelines for the project are tighter than emo pants, with construction proposed to start this year and be completed by 2017 or 2018. By contrast, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s current tallest building, took six years to build from first excavation.

Nevertheless, the designers said they hope the building will serve as inspiration for more sustainable design in industrial China.

"Wuhan is an unusual city, dotted with huge lakes," says Chetwood. "Protecting the lakes could lead to other projects that protect them even more."

… Like saving-the-environment “Inception.” There might just be hope for humanity.