A brief tour of some of the world’s weirdest tall-building concepts
Crescent Moon Tower
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Where else but Dubai? The Crescent Moon Tower is significant for its shape, symbolising the region’s Islamic identity. The building will consist of 33 storeys, including a library, restaurant, cafés and more, and reportedly could be finished as early as 2015.
_______________________________________________________
The Cloud
Seoul, South Korea
Also scheduled to be completed by 2015, The Cloud is a pair of high-end residential towers created by Dutch architects MVRDV. Both are connected by the “cloud” – a 10-floor structure consisting of public and private gardens, pools, decks and patios. A lot of controversy has surrounded the buildings due to their resemblance to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a claim MVRDV denied in a statement.
_______________________________________________________
Naga Towers
Gandhinagar, India
Reaching 230m high, the Nāga Towers, AKA ‘Snake Towers’, will be located in the largely industrial Indian state of Gujarat, as one of the 312 buildings in the humongous Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) project. The tower’s name derives from India’s association with the snake as a power symbol in the country’s mythology and Hinduism. Nothing to do with a fondness for retro Nokia games, then.
_______________________________________________________
The Dynamic Tower
Dubai, UAE
Now this one’s properly odd; each of the 80 floors on the 420-metre tower is designed to rotate via voice command. Taking between one and three hours, the apartments in the building would revolve 360 degrees, powered by 79 giant wind turbines between each floor. Estimated costs back in 2008 were around. £400.2m, but plans were put on hold due to the financial crisis/general lunacy of a spinning flat.
(Images: CRESCENT MOON TOWER COURTESY OF TRANSPARENT HOUSE; THE CLOUD: MVRDV; NAGA TOWER: GUJARAT INTERNATIONAL FINANCE TEC-CITY; THE DYNAMIC TOWER: DAVID FISHER ARCHITECTS © 2013 DYNAMIC ARCHITECTURE)
