Architects have begun to show interest in the spiral form in the design of high-rise buildings relatively recently. The first spiral skyscraper appeared in August 2005 in Malmö, a large city in southern Sweden. The building was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.
The creative impulse for the idea was the sculpture of the master himself called "The Twisted Torso". The structure consists of nine independent 5-storey segments, each of which is rotated relative to the lower "neighbor", while the total rotation is 90 degrees. In turn, each floor is a pentagonal figure in plan, displaced in a circle from the vertical axis, which is supported by an outer steel body.
The original construction with a height of 190 m, numbering 54 floors, thanks to its shape, immediately became the hallmark of the city. This unusual building is the tallest residential building in Scandinavia.
The tower's fame was strengthened after the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from the top with a parachute on August 18, 2006 and landed safely.
The success of the Swirling Torso did not go unnoticed by other architects, and soon spiral skyscrapers began to sprout across the planet like mushrooms after rain. In 2011, a skyscraper in the shape of a corkscrew, dubbed "The Revolution," rose over Panama City - the business part of the capital of the Central American state of Panama. The 52-storey building makes a full 360-degree turn. The corkscrew tower is crowned with a sharp spire, the top point of which reaches 242 m.
In 2012, in a suburb of Toronto (Canada), at the intersection of two main streets, two twin spiral towers "Absolute" made of glass and concrete rose. Tower A is 179 m high and has 56 floors. Tower B, 160 meters high, has 50 floors.
However, the effect is produced not so much by the height of the buildings as by their unusual, “convex-concave” forms, thanks to which the locals dubbed the new building “Marilyn Monroe Towers”. However, according to other observers, the towers are more reminiscent of a giant hourglass. Skyscrapers rotate from base to top by 209 degrees, while each balcony offers a unique view of the picturesque surroundings.
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A skyscraper in the shape of a spiral was built even in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is far from the most prosperous European country. Its height is 176 m, however, taking into account the antenna.
More recently, in June of this year, another architectural masterpiece of a spiral shape and a height of 306 m rose in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). The building, named "Infinity Tower", has 73 floors. Each subsequent floor is rotated by 1.2 degrees in relation to the previous one, which gives a total of 90 degrees. In the category of spiral residential buildings, this skyscraper is currently the tallest in the world. The project came out of the walls of the same architectural bureau, according to the drawings of which, again in Dubai, the tallest building in the world was recently erected - the 828-meter-high Burj Khalifa pointed to the sky.
TODAY
Perhaps, it is difficult to name any megalopolis of the planet, in which the construction of skyscrapers of extraordinary shapes would not be carried out today.
Spiral, "twisted" and "curved" towers are being built in London and Berlin, in Beijing and Milan, in the capitals of Latin American and Arab states.
Of course, Moscow could not stay aside from this fashion. Since 2007, with periodic breaks of various lengths, in our golden-domed capital, in the Moscow-City business activity zone, a spiral-shaped building is being constructed, which has received the official name “Evolution”. The new building will have 48 floors, with a 135-degree turn to the top. In May of this year, the builders reached the level of 42 floors. Thus, the main contours of the building, popularly nicknamed the "dancing tower", became quite visible.
Completion of construction is expected in 2014.
Optimistic experts believe that the Evolution Tower, thanks to its original architectural form, will become another hallmark of the capital and add to the list of its most attractive sights.
TOMORROW
It is known that many townspeople dream of their own garden or at least a small vegetable garden. But how to combine this desire with the tightness of a modern metropolis?
German architect Philip von Bock proposed his own solution to this problem. His project for a spiral skyscraper for Berlin provides for the presence of a fairly large area for each apartment, located on the roof of the dwelling one floor below. Depending on the imagination of the newcomer, it will be possible to arrange vegetable beds, flower beds, even a shady garden with a romantic gazebo. At the same time, the skyscraper will receive the lion's share of the consumed electricity from alternative sources - solar panels and wind turbines.
The spiral skyscraper was designed according to the same principle, but only for the natural conditions of India, the architect Vi-kas Pavar. Two twisting towers rise high into the sky, connected in the center and closer to the top by two covered bridges. Due to the special spiral design, each block has an adjoining terrace located on the roof of the underlying block. Each such terrace can be turned, with the diligence of the owner, into a well-kept green corner.
Structurally, the skyscraper is assembled from "cubes" - separate modular blocks that are assembled on the ground and then put into the tower at the construction site.
London architects went even further, creating designs for spiral skyscrapers in the shape of a mangrove palm. Since the appearance of a mangrove palm is unknown to most Londoners, then, obviously, the people will associate this structure with giant "cones" or "pineapples", or even bizarre coral reefs.
An amazing project of a skyscraper-zoo "Vertical Safari" was proposed by experts from Buenos Aires (Argentina). The height of the zoo will be 240 meters, and a natural habitat for the fauna will be created on its floors. As for the spectators, they will make excursions, being in the capsule cabins of the huge Ferris wheel inscribed in the structure. The wheel will describe a full circle in half an hour. Visitors will see various animals on the prairie without disturbing their peace.
For your information: this year, 416 projects from designers, architects and engineers from 64 countries of the world were submitted to the competition for unusual skyscrapers.