The challenge, this time, is not about height. In the escalation of increasingly dizzying skyscrapers, erected to the glory of nascent or already born economic powers, South Korea displaces everyone and invents a new record: the first invisible skyscraper on the planet.
In planning since the mid-2000s, the Infinity Tower - which is expected to be built near the Incheon International Airport on the outskirts of Seoul - just got the green light from the South Korean authorities.
This is not science fiction. Or rather, not completely. To create the illusion of making this 450-metre-high building invisible, the group of American architects Gds, together with the Samwoo studio and Anu Design, have imagined a gigantic image "reprojection" system: various cameras will film the landscape seen from the rear of the skyscraper and will project it onto huge LED screens installed on the front façade.
Seen from a distance, the trick – quite complex on a technical level, with images taken from innumerable angles and processed by a computer to accentuate the panoramic effect – will allow, together with the massive use of glass and plays of transparency, to make the building vanish .
In the tower there will be restaurants, a cinema, boutiques and several observation points. But for invisible dinners at high altitudes there is still a wait. The builder has not yet been indicated, nor has there been any mention of dates. The day it rises, in the possible indifference of many, the Infinito Tower will be the sixth tallest skyscraper in the world. Assuming anyone sees it.
