Underground skyscraper in Mexico features offices and housing 300m below ground
A group of Mexican architects are behind an ambitious project to build a 65-story ‘Earthscraper’ 300 metres below ground.
A group of architects believe they have found a solution to Mexico City’s housing and open space shortages: by building down instead of up.
Local architects, BNKR Arquitectura are behind an ambitious project to build a 65-story ‘Earthscraper’ 300 metres below ground that, quite literally, turns the idea of the modern skyscraper on its head.
The space-saving inverted pyramid is designed to skirt the height limits on new buildings in the capital – a mega-city with one of the world’s densest urban populations.
The concept is also inspired by Mexico’s heritage of building pyramids. Esteban Suarez from BNKR Arquitectura said: “The Earthscraper digs down through the layers of cities to uncover our roots.”
The architects turned visionaries hope that the new upside-down, underground development could be built under the city’s main plaza or zócalo – the site for major public events and festivals.
Artist impressions of the Earthscraper show its proposed uses as a museum, office space, shops and residential housing development in one.
Office workers and residents working and sleeping in the underground structure would have access to natural light through the Earthscraper’s glass-floored roof at ground level, the firm say.
