The race to climb the highest is not the only competition in the world of architecture. On the contrary, the prevailing trend in recent years seems to be to innovate the typology of the skyscraper: instead of battling to have the tallest skyscraper in the world, the great global metropolises are seeing the growth of huge iconic objects, whose shapes recall everyday objects, animal silhouettes...
We started an exploration of this world of shapes in 2021, and we are back now with this year's latest episodes.
The Helix, Amazon's new US headquarters, is just the latest architectural oddity, the result of a market that puts the aesthetic impact of a project before its functionality.
The global centre of this trend is without a doubt London, where in recent years it has become fashionable to give skyscrapers nicknames to enhance their iconicity. The new skyline is now characterised by the accumulation of bizarre architectural objects such as the Gherkin, the Cheese Grater, the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie, or the Boomerang.
The world’s weirdest skyscrapers now under construction
Skyscraper architecture is challenging aesthetic conventions with ever more daring designs, becoming true icons, from designs that look like emoji to one inspired by Beyoncé’s curves.
Image Courtesy of NBBJ
Image Courtesy of NBBJ
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Image Courtesy of Elenberg Fraser
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Image Courtesy of BIG
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Image Courtesy of Herzog & De Meuron
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Photo Courtesy of Fernando Donis
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- Salvatore Peluso
- 20 August 2024
Image Courtesy of Vasily Klyukin
Image Courtesy of Vasily Klyukin
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Image Courtesy of Oiio
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Image Courtesy of Hayiri Atak
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Courtesy of Heerim architects
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Image Courtesy of Kalbod Design Studio
Image Courtesy of Kalbod Design Studio
Another place of concentration of skyscrapers and strange buildings is China, which in addition to the iconicity of the buildings features unlikely reproductions of Western structures such as the White House, the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower. Here, however, in 2016, the State Council and the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a directive that goes against "oversized, externalized and strange" architecture, indicating that buildings should be "appropriate [to the context], economical, green and pleasing." We can say that this recent phenomenon is an evolution – or degeneration – of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's critical interest in "ugly and ordinary architecture" (so a chapter in Learning from Las Vegas is titled).
“The duck is the special building that is a symbol” reads the famous 1972 book, commenting on a building in the shape of a duck. From this to 💩 the passage is not so short. Meanwhile, we prefer to look to the future, and see what other “great works” the world of construction has in store. From snakes to Beyoncé's curves, from tulips to crescent moons, we have made a selection of the oddest skyscrapers currently under construction.
The Arlington County Council recently approved the decision to build the 106-metre high spiral tower for the Amazon HQ2. The tower, named “The Helix”, will be one of three office buildings in Arlington County that will form Amazon's Amazon's second headquarters. The buildings, located between paths and tree-lined boulevards, are set to become among the tallest in Arlington, where high-rise construction is prohibited.
The reflective glass and steel mixed-use building with its soft, curvy form is an homage to the wavy fabric-wrapped bodies of the dancers in Beyoncé's 2013 music video (Ghost).
The Cactus Towers, named after the characteristic façade conformation reminiscent of the spiny shape of a cactus, are characterised by the superimposition of horizontal blocks with different orientations to create an articulated geometric composition incorporating staggered loggias, sharp edges and glazed surfaces. Recently completed, the towers are mainly intended for residential and micro-living, especially for young students, residents and tourists.
The glass pyramid with a height of 180 m will be the third tallest building in Paris, after the Eiffel Tower and the Montparnasse Tower. The trapezoidal shape of the building is determined by the rotation of the north and south axes on the rectangular plot, while the volumetric pyramidal development reduces shadows on the adjacent residential buildings. The skyscraper, scheduled for completion in 2026, will house offices, a conference centre, a wellness centre, a cultural centre, a kindergarten, a luxury hotel and a panoramic restaurant on its 41 floors.
The world's largest “frame” was conceived as an observatory, museum and monument to cornice the landmarks of modern Dubai (the Emirates Towers or the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building) and older Dubai (Deira, Umm Harare and Karama). The complex, made of glass, steel, aluminium and reinforced concrete, consists of two vertical towers connected by two horizontal volumes, the upper of which forms a 150 m high walkway.
Con i suoi 246 metri che lo renderanno al termine dei lavori il grattacielo più alto della Scandinavia, Karlatornet è situato in un una posizione tale da essere visibile nitidamente dall’area portuale di Lindholmen e dal centro città, divenendo così un potente landmark nel paesaggio urbano. La torre in vetro dalla silhouette fluida ed elegante, quasi completata, ospiterà 611 appartamenti, hotel, uffici e uno sky bar.
The Oklahoma City Council has just approved the urban development programme for the Boardwalk at Bricktown area, of which Legends Tower will be the flagship element. The building, which at 581 m will become the tallest skyscraper in the United States and one of the tallest in the world, will house hotel, residential and commercial functions and, on the top floors, a restaurant and a rooftop terrace. “The height is not a necessary thing”, says one of the planners, revealing that the exponential growth in height of the building was not planned at the beginning but occurred during the conceptual process, following the reactions of investors, the market and the city to the project.
The design of the ultra-luxury residential complex (the world's first Bugatti-Residence) illustrated in Dubai in 2023 is currently under development. The subtle curves, fluid forms and changing play of light that will be created on the glazed surfaces evoke an amoeboid struggling in the heart of the metropolis.
The 180 m high office tower offers a digression on the theme of twisting volumes and the relationship with light, which becomes a powerful design element. The essential glass volume that twists in on itself, creating curved walls in dialogue with the rectilinear planes, accentuates the light reflections, which change over the course of the day and transforms the building into an inspiring backdrop for a “dance of light”.