HSB Turning Torso Essay

Malmö, Sweden is home to one of the most gorgeous buildings that come to mind in the 20th as well as the 21st century. I am talking about the HSB Turning Torso designed by Spanish designer Santiago Calatrava, which upon completion was the biggest building present in Scandinavia coming in at 623 feet with 54 stories in all. The looming and twisting structure is located on the Swedish side of the Oresund strait. The construction of this piece of art dates from February 14, 2001 when ground broke on the site and it was then completed in 2005. The architect hails from Valencia, Spain and what I’ve really come to love about all his work is a lot of them are generally idea’s he has from his sculptures. Such is the example in the Turning Torso, which is modeled after the posture of a human spine and called it Twisting Torso (hints the name). Also 80 South Street in New York, which was never constructed due to financial situations... but it was modeled after a sculpture in which he basically stacked 12 four-story cubes on top of one another, cantilevered off a central concrete column standing above an eight-story base. But anyways that’s just some of his work and I’d certainly encourage anyone to look around at some of it, I believe it to be quite profound to say the least. The reasoning behind Sweden thriving on such a building was to re-establish a recognizable skyline for Malmö since the removal of the Kockums Crane in 2002. The crane was a landmark for Malmö but was shipped off to Ulsan in South Korea after being sold to Hyundai Heavy Industries, so needless to say Sweden, Malmö in particular needed something to put its name back on the map... and so they did!

The exterior is a very vital and fundamental part of this building in particular and because this building twists, the facade is double curved, which makes it construction very complicated. The facade is made up of glass and aluminum, which it has passed several laboratory tests concerning air and water sealing. There are approximately 2,800 panels and 2,250 windows in its facade. The panels are curved and the glass panels are flat and each of these cubes has within it 300 panels. You’ll notice up the entire side of the structure is a white steel support with every so often having what’s called “steel cigars” going out and connecting it physically to the building. The “cigars” are connected with structural walls spanning two floors at the top of each cube. And the purpose of these walls is to transfer shearing forces from the steel frame to the supporting concrete core within. The windows by themselves were a problem because in order to follow the twist of the building, the windows are either inwards or outwards, depending on which side of the building they are oriented. On the western side they are leaning inwards and on the eastern, outwards. This leaning of the windows is between 0 and 7 degrees, while the lateral leaning is about 6 degrees. 

Now for the interior... the two bottom stories are intended as office space, and the other stories from the third floor house 147 luxury apartments. All of the apartments have unique layouts depending on their position in the building. The living rooms are large and open, often with views limited to only two directions. The impression of light and space if reinforced by the elevated ceiling in the living rooms. The massive, slightly tilted windows give the apartments a generous flow of natural light to gleam throughout the living space. On the two top floors, 53rd and 54th you experience a magnificent 360-degree view. These two levels are mostly occupied by conferences for the modern day business people and throughout these floors you’ll find artwork, designed by Mr. Calatrava himself.

The design of this building seems like such a difficult thing to consider, but somehow it’s done and it is done in a remarkable fashion most importantly. The framework of the Turning Torso consists of the core, which is shaped like a concrete pipe, which has a inner diameter around 34 feet and walls which gradually go from eight feet to approximately one foot at the top of the building. Inside of this massive concrete pipe which is essentially what it amounts there is lift shafts and staircases. The core is cast in a sliding form, and what this means is that the form is suspended between vertical beams and can slide upwards, one floor at a time, by the way of jacks. 

The HSB Turning Torso uses the nine segments or otherwise known as the cubes to slowly twist 90-degrees over the course of 54 floors. Architecture is something I have faith in, and most importantly I believe we can learn vital information about a certain civilization, time period, really anything. And I believe this definitely a sore thumb (in a good way) for Malmö, Sweden. They wanted to re-innovate a noticeable structure for their land and they succeeded in my opinion. All of this can be learnt through all the idea’s and hard work and dedication that was put into this design, it incorporates such modern technology and uses it in a beautiful manner. A perfect example of this is on its facade consisting entirely of aluminum panels and glass. Next you have such breathe taking interior views all varying on your direction in the building, and lastly you have an amazing gooey center as Patrick calls it which is its exoskeleton which spans the course of its height and gradually tapers down to merely a foot in size.