This is the Giant Observation Wheel (GOW) or "Nippon Moon", currently in development in Japan.
Though the height is currently undisclosed, its designer UNStudio has hinted that it could be twice the scale of the London Eye, potentially putting it amongst the tallest wheels in the world, if not the tallest. "It's almost twice the scale of the wheel in London," Ben van Berkel, founder of the Dutch architectural design studio, tells Wired.co.uk. The London Eye is 135 metres tall and the largest wheel in the world is the Singapore Flyer at 165 metres tall.
Commissioned by Japanese company Ferris Wheel Investment Co Ltd, the Nippon Moon has been designed in collaboration with Arup, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Experientia.
Its 32 capsules, some double-decker, will allow augmented reality views of the city it is built in, though the location is currently under wraps. It will rotate in 40 minutes. "You [will] have layers of information that you would normally look at on Google," says van Berkel, adding later that the "experience [will be] richer than that which you see alone."
Designing what is essentially an over-sized Ferris Wheel is by definition a rather narrow affair. Van Berkel describes the feel of the design as "brusque" and "bold", but there are only so many ways you can reinvent a vertical rotating wheel, especially when the one you're building is a giant. "Structural constraints defined by Arup and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- two of the world's most specialised wheel engineers -- left little room for maneuver due to the location and the size of the GOW," UNStudio note. "I knew that we could not just come up with a singular experience," says van Berkel. "For [such] a large scale, we knew that for the journey we needed to invent more."
Passengers on the Nippon Moon will experience a different them depending on which capsule they're on. They'll be able to communicate with people on the other capsules and sharing their seperate experiences.
Van Berkel speaks of creating a "wheel of learning, a wheel of experiences [...] a dream wheel" and of creating new ways of travelling through time and space. He has some pedigree when it comes to the latter, having designed the unique Mercedes-Benz Museum inStuttgart, Germany, which has spiralling paths that intersect inside the building.
Queuing will also supposedly be banished with an active system that is somewhat reminiscent of aeroplane boarding procedures. In addition to offering augmented reality views, the GOW app will tell you how long you have until boarding your capsule, so that you can relax until it's time to get onboard.
At the moment, the project is in the design phase as the funding is yet to be entirely secured. But when and if it is, a new iconic experience will be coming to a Japanese city.
h/t: Dezeen
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
