FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Design

In This 360-Degree Rotating Tower, Everyone Gets to Live at the Top

Industrial designer Shin Kuo imagines a future of spinning skylines with his egalitarian building concept.
All images courtesy of Shin Kuo

A spinning skyline literally gives new perspective to urban architecture in Taiwanese industrial designer Shin Kuo’s Turn to the Future building concept. Developed as his thesis project at the San Francisco Academy of Art University, Turn to the Future is an horizontally rotating apartment building that combats obstructed windows and mundane views with a 360-degree, twenty-seven story vista. The revolving tower’s dynamic design promises urban-dwellers a chance to connect with their environment, fostering new awareness of the “ground, sky, light, gravity and shadow.”

Advertisement

As explained in Turn to the Future’s project description, the building’s rotation cycle operates through extensive systems of engineering which carry each apartment in seamless spirals from the twenty-seventh floor on down to the first using a “predetermined timeline.” Each unit runs along a spiral track which locks into a “roller coaster” system controlled by infrared sensors and monitored through various support and braking systems. When one unit reaches the bottom, the combined action of a hydraulic skidding system and crane system return it to the top. Kuo plans to realize his building utilizing 3D printing to build the units, incorporating a combination of aluminum, steel, smart glass, solar panels, as well as lighter materials—such as carbon fiber, bendable concrete, and even artificial bone—into the framework.

Through this cyclical system, the industrial designer proposes an equalizing design which allows all of the apartment’s inhabitants the same, exhilarating experience. “The project is not technology driven,” says Kuo on his website, “it is a proposal for a new way of living, dwelling and a new lifestyle. I am going to provide a new chance for humans to communicate with living spaces and actively interact with the city though moving and changing relationships. I believe this project will change the definition of the building history.”

See more of Shin Kuo’s designs on his website.

Advertisement

Via CityLab

Related:

Skyscraper Design Stacks a Beach, a Forest, and a Stadium in Times Square

How Do You Make a Skyscraper with No Shadow?

Tornado-Shaped Skyscraper Could Touch Down in Oklahoma