A 610m oxygen pumping, CO2 eating tower machine, covered in plants of many kinds, that also acts as a transmitter for digital signals.

One week ago a popular survey and suggestions process to name the The New Tokyo Tower decided to call it "Sky Tree".

The tower is due to be completed sometime in late 2011 and is being built by the Tobu Railway Company. It will rise some 610 meters high over the downtown area of Oshiage, near where I used to live in Higashi-Mukoujima in Sumida ward.

Two other "sky" related architectures came to mind:

Sky City 1000, above, was a planned mega structure proposed in 1989 by the Takenaka corporation, but never realised.

Mori Building recently opened their Sky Deck on the roof of the Mori Tower in Roppongi.

This is Jack climbing the beanstalk from the famous Grimm Fairy tale.

I hope that the architects of the Sky Tree can consider arboreal elements in their design: for instance, designing a metallic tree structure that also functions like a living tree, absorbing CO2 and emitting oxygen. See this for details on the benefits of trees in urban areas. Or, I would propose that large numbers of ivy species of flowers be planted around the structure (like the Morning Glory), completely covering the metal structure over time. As one moves upwards in height, the plant species would also change to high altitude varieties, perhaps including various fruiting species that could be harvested for food, wine, medicines, entheogen ritual etc.

It seems to me that, if one is to name this new tower a tree, it should explore different paradigms and models of what a tree is and can be in a dense urban environment like Tokyo. The notion of a bio-architecture or some other such dissolving of previous boundaries may be useful. Imagine a 610m oxygen pumping, CO2 eating tower machine, covered in plants of many kinds, that also acts as a transmitter for digital signals. What would also make it something else is if it became a massive wireless hub transmitter for Tokyo and its environs, providing free net access to all. The tower would then begin to breathe like a Tree of Knowledge, made up of plant matter, bio functions and enabling pathways into cyberspace.