‘Dance of Light’ skyscraper: World’s most twisted tower unveiled by China
Most of you would agree that we live in a world of skyscrapers – from Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest building) to USA’s World Trade Centre, they are spread all across the world. But did you know that some of these skyscrapers are often twisted? That’s right, and one such has recently been unveiled at Chongqing in western China, more specifically on the Xingfu Plaza in the city’s Jiangbei district. Deemed as the world’s most twisted tower, the ‘Dance of Light’ skyscraper is indeed one of a kind. Want to know more about it? Read on.
Introducing the ‘Dance of Light’ skyscraper
As already mentioned, China’s latest skyscraper is the world’s most twisted tower with a twisting angle of up to 8.8 degrees per floor, almost 1.5 times more than any other known twisted tower. Now imagine its head getting lost in the clouds. Well, that is exactly what happens as the ‘Dance of Light’ skyscraper has a height of 180 metres.
This 39-storeyed building (with 34 office floors, 5 storeys of meeting rooms and other high-end facilities with a low-level block containing eateries) has been designed by architecture studio Aedas inspired by the shape of northern lights. In fact, this engineering marvel has been nicknamed since its unique double-curved façades is much identical to the dancing aurora borealis (the rays and spirals of polar lights often seen in the Arctic regions). In addition, the changing light play (sunlight during the day and artificially installed lights during the night) throughout the day makes it no less than a landmark building in China’s business district, giving it a perfect twisted impression with two distinctive curves. Interestingly, in order to pursue the concept of ‘Dance of Light,’ the design team focused on utilising light above all to make the structure stand out.
Sources also cite that the façade is not only meant to give a smooth yet striking external impression but also helps preserve the tower’s interior spaces. In case you are wondering how this happens, it’s due to the use of dual-curved, cold-form glass alongside bright silver mullions (bars used to separate glassy window panes) that not only give the building a semi-circular shape but also allows natural light to complement its contours. In addition, its minimalistic design highlighted by the vertical lines when combined with reflection and refraction from its glass panels presents a brilliant show of light alluding to the dancing figure of a ballerina. What’s more interesting is that the building has bottom-to-top connections between its northern and eastern sides that allows it to maintain the twisted façade alongside a podium roof.
More such twisted buildings across the globe
Today, the ‘Dance of Light’ is the world’s most twisted skyscraper. However, it is definitely not the first twisted building. In 2005, Sweden had unveiled its first twisted building called the Turning Torso. It has 54 storeys with a height of 190 metres. It was inspired by the country’s famous white marble human statue called the ‘Twisting Torso.’ Another notable mention is Canada’s Absolute Towers that was built in 2012 and is 170 metres tall. Its speciality is the twin towers that have oval-shaped floors and mainly houses residential and studio apartments. Do you know about the world’s tallest twisted tower? Well, it's in Dubai and has as many as 75 storeys. It’s called Canyan Tower and guess what, its peculiarity lies in its ability to rotate a full 90 degrees from base to top.