Last summer plans were revealed for a Dubai building so spectacular that if someone told you it was a rendering for a fantasy set in the 24th century painted by an artist stoned on ganja, you would nod and say, Of course. In fact, construction of the 80 story Dynamic Tower office/hotel/residence is scheduled to commence in 2009 and completion is slated for 2010.

Who would live there? The very rich, and obviously a few of that breed have survived the current economic horror show. One reporter writes that “Over 140 reservation requests have arrived from the United States, followed by the UK (94) and Australia (57), as well as Italy, China, New Zealand, and other countries throughout the world. More than 50 reservations were submitted specifically for the Dynamic Tower’s luxury villas, with prices starting at 20 million Euros (US $30 million).” There’s another tower like this one in the works for Moscow.

And what is it about this building that inspires superlatives? How about, each floor revolves at its own speed? How about, each of the luxury “villas” on the top ten floors has its own parking space and swimming pool? How about, the building is energy efficient thanks to horizontal wind turbines separating each storey from the ones above and below? How about, the building is being prefabricated in Italy? How about, the architect says he never designed a skyscraper before this? One blogger describes it as “the single biggest mindf**k of our time…80 stories of rotating madness.”

Check out Eye on Dubai: Spinning Skyscraper Lines Up 140 U.S. Buyers?!. A video is accompanied by Richard Strauss’s Also Spracht Zarathustra, the same megapompous theme used in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, but one has to admit that the first glimpse of the tower inspires awe akin to that first breathtaking view of Kubrick’s space station.

The structure does raise a few questions: plumbing, for instance. So let me get this straight: my master bedroom toilet starts out over your master bedroom toilet, but in ten minutes it will pass over your kitchen; ten minutes after that over your swimming pool, and ten after that over the Bentley in your garage. All this while the blades of a gigantic wind turbine whirl between my floor and your ceiling. So, when exactly do I flush?

Just asking.

RC