The current global
battle to crank out record-breaking tall buildings the South Korean
government has granted approval to start construction on the world's
first "invisible" tower. It is well designed by United
States based GDS Architects, the glass-encased Tower Infinity will top
out at 450 meters almost 1,476 feet and have the third highest
observation deck in the world. This mega project is supported by Korea
Land & Housing Corporation, a state-owned land and
public housing developer. More importantly the invisibility illusion
will be achieved with a high-tech LED facade system that uses a series
of cameras that will send real-time images onto the building's
reflective surface and it will be built just outside
of Seoul near the Incheon International Airport.
The target completion
date is not confirmed yet neither by developer nor GDS. The project will
be primarily used for leisure activities, observation decks, a movie
theater, roller coaster, water park and plentiful
food and beverage outlets. It is expected to be in sixth on the list of
the world's highest towers, behind Tokyo SkyTree, Guangzhou's
CantonTower, Toronto's CN Tower, Moscow's Ostankino Tower and Shanghai's
Oriental Pearl. Therefore; Tower Infinity's invisible
face is basically just state of the art camouflage. Cameras will be
placed at 3 different heights on 6 different sides of the building to
capture real-time images of the surroundings; 3 other sections, each
filled with 500 rows of LED screens, will project
the individual digital images. In the course of digital processing,
images will be scaled, rotated and merged to generate a seamless
panoramic image that appears on the LED rows to produce the illusion of
invisibility.