Elevator

Once a mine has been exhausted of its ore, there's really no use for it anymore – it just becomes an abandoned hole in the ground. According to a new study, however, the shafts of such mines could serve in energy-storing gravity batteries.

Following the renovation of London's Battersea Power Station, its much-anticipated Lift 109 has finally opened to the public. The glass elevator ride provides 360-degree views of the city skyline from the top of one of the building's iconic chimneys.

Researchers want to turn skyscrapers into giant gravity batteries for remarkably cheap renewable energy storage, moving heavy weights up and down in the elevators to store and release energy. The team says it'll cost far less than conventional batteries.

Architecture graduate Elena Larriba has unveiled a novel alternative to climbing stairs and using elevators – it's named Vycle, and it would let you pedal your way between floors. She has developed an early prototype but would love to take the idea further.

​After years of development, German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp has successfully demonstrated its new cable-free, Willy Wonka-style elevator concept, moving multiple cars vertically and horizontally in a single shaft using a magnet-based drive system similar to that in Maglev trains.

As skyscrapers grow ever higher, getting from the bottom to the top in a timely fashion becomes more of a problem. But there's little time wasted in Hitachi's ultra-high-speed elevator, which has reached 1,260 m/min during independent testing in Guangzhou, making it the world's fastest.

A new human-powered system prototype dubbed Vertical Walking has been developed that requires just ten percent of the effort needed to climb stairs, but can easily move a person up vast numbers of floors within a building.

London's Underground system faces growing passenger demand and "Willy Wonka" elevators that move sideways as well as up and down have been proposed to take some of the pressure off.​

Two years after Liftport raised over US$100,000 on Kickstarter, the team is sharing its progress towards creating an elevator from Earth to space, a journey that - interestingly enough - begins on the moon.

ThyssenKrupp has unveiled an innovative Willy Wonka-like elevator system that allows horizontal movement, and makes complex lift shafts featuring large numbers of lifts possible. The technology poses significant implications for the future of tall buildings.

Hitachi has announced that it’s installing the world's fastest ultra-high-speed elevators in the Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre skyscraper in Guangzhou, China. Making up two out of a total of 95 elevators in the building, the new lifts can reach record-breaking speeds of 1,200 m/min.

Israeli startup DigiGage has created a display system for elevators that shows images and information moving along with viewers as they go up or down. The system is already being used in several countries, including the US and China.