What If The 737 MAX Was A Residential Complex Tower?

Real World Aviation
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You’ve probably seen people turn aircraft into restaurants, houses, hotels, and more.

What if the Boeing 737 MAX became a residential complex tower?

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In a proposed design by Victor Hugo Azevedo and Cheryl Lu Xu which won “honorable mention” for the 2020 Skyscraper Competition, they created a concept using the grounded Boeing 737 MAXs to create housing units for people.

If (which is an unlikely if) the 737 MAX never flies again, they’ll have over 200 complete aircraft sitting around. While Boeing could scrap these and sell their parts, they could become houses for “younger veterans”.

Named the “Max Tower”, the complex features numerous amenities:

The Max Tower not only provides comfortable and convenient living experiences for the veterans but also offers a variety of centrally located on-site amenities that take care of the veterans’ physical and mental well-being, as well as their social needs. Veterans have easy access to mental and physical health care such as private counseling, group therapy, fitness center, on-site clinic, as well as physical therapy that would cater to the special needs of everyone. Pet companionship, STEM and vocational training, as well as community activities, are also in place to facilitate veterans’ smooth transition back to civilian life.

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The creators’ reasoning behind this project:

If airplanes are buildings that fly, our response is to use decommissioned airframes as a ready-made building unit. Airplane fuselages are already structurally sound, waterproof and insulated. Our idea is to leverage the architectural potential of the airplane and give it a second life as a skyscraper. More than just a single iconic tower, our design is intended to be a provocative yet replicable building system that can be applied in many different contexts. And with a global fleet of 26,000 airplanes and an expected growth to 34,000 by the next decade, there will be no lack of building materials by the time these airplanes are retired.

The full concept: http://www.evolo.us/the-boeing-737-max-tower/

Obviously, there’s no guarantee this will come into fruition. However, the conceptual thought of it is interesting. Even though the 737 MAX will likely return to service, this design could be used in the future with different aircraft.

What are your thoughts? Would you like to live in a “Max Tower”?

41 Likes
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Oh my gosh that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen

Definitely an interesting concept tho, interesting to see what may happen to the MAXs

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Imagine some of these formerly operating aircraft being shown on planespotters.net…

What’s the status or this Norwegian 737MAX?

Wedged in a highrise

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The Max seems like a bad choice, 767? 757? They aren’t decommissioning Max’s yet, so it would cost a lot to build that

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Who ever came up with this should really rethink it because this is a very very bad idea. Why not build a actual good looking hotel for cheaper than having all the Max’s bought for this building?

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What in the actual 💩.
Why do people create this?

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It’s a beautiful building, yet ugly at the same time. A great idea, but I don’t know how viable it really is. I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not sure it will ever happen.

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This is a conceptual competition, so don’t really expect this to be constructed, but if it does, it won’t be for several decades.

The 2020 Skyscraper Competition is intended to be “crazy” like this, which is how it won honorable mention.

These were the winners of the competition:

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Makes me think of this:
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credit Disney

Idk why

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uh excuse me do I see a TWA MAX and an AA old livery MAX?

Very interesting though, that would (kinda?) be cool to live in?

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To all the people who say it’s terrible, just remember, it’s art too. People at one point thought the Effill Tower was the ugliest thing ever

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This is really odd

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hahahaha that’s hilarious

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Never thought of that visualization. Kinda does look like compacted garbage.

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So where do you live?
Oh I just live in the galley of a Norwegian 737 MAX a couple hundred meters above the ground.
I think it could be a good use of the planes, but maybe it could make use of other decommissioned planes as well as the MAXs, as @KPIT pointed out.

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Is this to name and shame the airlines that bought the MAX? Haha
Good idea actually, just wonder about practicality and if it’s worth the time. The apartments would definitely be less wide than depicted.

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This sounds cool. I don’t think the MAX will never fly again (I plan to fly them for Alaska when I’m an adult), but if people decide to blow things out of proportion and never certify it again, I would live in one.

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I think the idea is cool, but it’s just straight up ugly in my opinion. It doesn’t blend or go together at all.

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I wonder how safe this structure would be, it would be sad if the structure falls and the 737 Max takes another nose dive. ;)

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I mean hey, it’s functional. Much better than more lives being taken away.

1 Like