A rendering of "Next Tokyo", with Mt Fuji in the background.

Rising from the waters of Tokyo Bay, with Mt Fuji in the background, is a mile-high tower so tall it looks beyond the realm of imagination.

It could be a reality by the year 2045.

Tokyo has plans to build a 1.7 kilometre high skyscraper, twice the size of Dubai's Burj Khalifa - currently the tallest building in the world.

Kohn Pedersen Fox If the plan is approved, Tokyo Bay will adapt to combat climate change and rising tides by the year 2045.

The ambitious structure, which will be known as the Sky Mile Tower, was designed as part of the Next Tokyo development, an initiative where architects were asked to come up with a plan for a mega-city that has adapted to climate change in the year 2045.

It was created by architects at Kohn Pedersen Fox and structural engineering firm Leslie E. Robertson Associates, who put forth the futuristic new vision for Tokyo Bay.

If the plan is approved, the residential "mega skyscraper" is expected to house 55,000, with multilevel sky lobbies where residents will share amenities such as shopping centres, restaurants, hotels, gyms, libraries, and health clinics, the Architectural Digest reported.

Reuters The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is currently the world's tallest structure.

Its elevators will carry people horizontally to their apartments, as well as vertically from floor to floor.

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To address the issue of pumping and distributing water up and around such a tall building, the architects designed a facade that could collect, treat and store water at various levels in the tower, relying on gravity for natural distribution.

The colossal structure will also be surrounded by man-made hexagonal-shaped islands, that will protect the development against natural disasters such as flooding and earthquakes.

Dubai's Burj Khalifa stands at 828m, but Saudi Arabia is expected to knock it off its perch as the world's tallest building by 2020, with the completion of the 1km-tall Jeddah Tower.

Japan currently boasts the world's second tallest structure, with the Tokyo Skytree soaring to 2080 feet.





