“People still don’t live in skyscrapers the way futurists had envisioned, for one reason: Elevators go only up and down,” explained Antony Wood, executive director of the CTBUH. “In the Harry Potter movies, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and others, we see cable-less boxes that can travel not just vertically but horizontally and even diagonally.”
A system called MULTI, developed and being tested by German elevator producer ThyssenKrupp, could bring these fantasy concepts to reality. Its design replaces cables with linear induction motor technology originally developed for magnetic levitation trains in Japan and China and the Hyperloop.
This research project, set to conclude in September 2018, will explore as many of the practical implications of rope-less elevator travel as possible. Thinking of elevators the way ThyssenKrupp suggests could revolutionise the construction and use of tall buildings. Architects, designers and builders could create structures that are both far taller and far wider than current skyscrapers – and people could move though them much more easily than we do in cities today.
The linear motor technology could also help side-step a major issue facing current skyscrapers. Regular cable designs can only safely rise about 500 metres in one continuous stretch, so in tall buildings there have to be numerous lift shafts installed to get people to the top. MULTI could solve that, as it’s elevator cars could travel between shafts, around congestion.
These cabins can travel horizontally, and potentially even diagonally: The motors pivot to follow the powered track, while the floor of the cabin remains level. This makes it feasible to build massive building complexes interconnected by motorised vehicles operating high above the ground where residents would potentially have a door-to-door ride between buildings, at height, in a single vehicle.
At the moment, these systems are far more expensive than the conventional alternatives like stronger carbon-fibre-roped systems. But as with many other forms of technology, the cost goes down rapidly as more people buy the systems, and as research advances improve them.
In the meantime, the CTBUH is developing a set of standards to govern what supports and reinforcements would be needed to support such a system and to guide in their design.