PHOTO: THE CLOUDS ARCHITECTURE

A New York-based firm is proposing that Dubai be the site of a futuristic, asteroid-suspended skyscraper that orbits around the world.The proposed Analemma Tower is designed by the firm, Clouds Architecture, in a way that it will be suspended downward on an asteroid orbiting 50,000km.The New-York-based firm describes the tower as the building structure which “inverts the traditional diagram of an earth-based foundation, instead depending on a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended”.The unique system which relies on space-based support for building is referred to as the Universal Orbital Support System (UOSS)."By placing a large asteroid into orbit over earth, a high-strength cable can be lowered towards the service of earth from which a super tall tower can be suspended," the firm said in a statement. "Since this new tower typology is suspended in the air, it can be constructed anywhere in the world and transported to its final location."The firm said the best place where such a structure can become a reality is Dubai."The proposal calls for Analemma to be constructed over Dubai, which has proven to be a specialist in tall building construction at one-fifth of the cost of New York City construction," the designers said.Although the idea seems impractical or borrowed from a science-fiction movie, Clouds Architecture says that it is closer to reality than what most people think."In 2015, the European Space Agency sparked a new round of investment in asteroid mining concerns by proving with its Rosetta mission that it's possible to rendezvous and land on a spinning comet," the firm noted. "NASA has scheduled an asteroid retrieval mission for 2021 which aims to prove the feasibility of capturing and relocating an asteroid."If the idea succeeds in near future, it will dramatically solve the housing issues many face around the world.This article originally appeared on Khaleej Times