Flying Skyscrapers

Individual &
Middle School Class
Category
Community
Date
Oct 2022

Flying Skyscrapers

Individual & Middle School Class
Community
Oct 2022


The 'Flying Skyscraper' is an activity template designed for middle school students that takes an creative approach to community building. The activity prompted groups of students to "create a self-sustaining skyscraper". 

As a kid, I've always wondered about the idea of having a flying house. I would imagine living in Beijing today, tomorrow in Paris, and New York the next, all from the comfort of my bed. Everything I'd need to survive and live happily would all be onboard; it was a living house.

The students and their friends were asked to create a flying skyscraper, where everything they'd need to survive and live happily would all be on onboard; it would be a living community. Each piece of paper contained a room, and each student created their own room.

As the skyscraper grew, I could see the defined boundaries of rooms getting blurred into a homogenous fabric; rooms crossed into eachother, responsibilities became realized, and resources became shared, all without instruction. 

In the end, an image of a flying skyscraper was revealed from a blanket of printer paper - and inside was the community who keeps it alive.


Students on their rooms:

Avery
“ I used a giant art balloon to fly into the air. There are airplace wings to hold the tower in the air and keep it balanced. Incase of thunderstorms, I added a lightning rod which connects to the power source room below mine. If I want to steer, there's a wheel I can use to change direction, and speed. ”
Amy
“ I incorporated the job my inserting water tanks to get rain water and filter them, and a tank to store all the water, which can send water to every room by pipes. I also got water by adding a sensor to the lower part of the skyscraper, and whenever it touched a body of water it would suck the water in while filtering it. ”
Ryan
“ I am the chef and I am supposed to take care of all the food for everybody on the skyscraper. in my room i have a kitchen and to my left is the farm, and to my right is a pantry full of snacks, and in the green house are foods that can be used for the kitchen like cooking potatoes. ”
John
“ My room duty is to deal with different kinds of waste. I included 2 containers for human and organic waste, the human waste and the organic waste goes to Remy to create energy. ”
Remy
“ My room duty was biomass power. I added a biomass power plant that also produces hydrogen gas that I could send to the ground transportation floor as well as the wind power floor. ”



Thank you Ms. Murphy
Special thanks to
The Best Class