HSB Turning Torso

HSB TURNING TORSO

Designed by Santiago Calatrava

Construction dates from 2001-2005

Located in Malmo, Sweden 

Many of Calatrava's works are based upon sculptures he has previously done, and this happens to be one of those buildings. The Twisting Torso is a piece he had done in the 80's and each floor of this structure consists of an irregular shaped pentagon which rotates around the central vertical core. This building officially opened August 27, 2005. The height of this design reaches to 623 feet and within it contains 54 stories, used mostly for luxury apartments but the two bottom segments are intended as office space. I have just recently started getting into Calatrava's works mostly thanks to my friend in the program, and I find his designs really to be so elaborate and different. There all different from what I have seen, he does many bridges and such, but he has done many famous places such as the Milwaukee Art Museum, and one of his designs would be 80 South Street in New York. Upon the completion of this structure it was the tallest building in Scandinavia, and the second tallest residential building in Europe. There however is a similar design out there now, which of course is in the UAE in Dubai, called the Infinity Tower. I really am drawn into the way the structure seems to climbing into the sky as if it could just keep rising right up into the heavens and the way it looms out from a distance is very provocative. The building actually turns 90 degrees from bottom to top and all the apartments within this building are laid out quite differently depending on their position in the structure.