China's 180-metre-tall Dance of Light has joined a growing list of twisted towers scattered all around the world.
From the hard-edged and angular to the curved and nature-inspired, here are 11 of the most interesting.
Cayan Tower
Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Location: Dubai, the UAE
Cayan Tower is a 306-metre-tall, 75-storey skyscraper in Dubai. Designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill, when the tower was completed in 2013, it was the world's tallest building with a twist of 90 degrees.
The twisting effect of the tower was created through a rather straight-forward design. Each floor rotates at 1.2 degrees around a cylindrical elevator and service core, creating an upward rotation.
Generali Tower
Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Location: Milan, Italy
Generali Tower, also named the "Twisted One", is renowned for its subtle yet powerful warping shape. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and opened in 2017, the Generali Tower is 191.5 metres high, with a total floor area of about 67,000 square metres.
The twisting form runs through the tower, with each rhomboid-shaped floor plate shifting slightly to accommodate its vertical axis. No two stories are completely aligned due to the twist of the building reducing at every level.
The design shifts the highest floors to face the Unesco World Heritage Site, the 15th century Santa Maria delle Grazie church.
Shanghai Tower
Architect: Gensler
Location: Shanghai, China
Shanghai Tower is a 128-storey, 632-metre-tall skyscraper in Shanghai. Designed by American architecture firm Gensler, it is the tallest building in China and the world's third-tallest building.
The tower was structured as nine cylindrical buildings, stacked on top of each other, enclosed by an inner layer of a glass facade. Over that, is an outer layer, which twists as it rises. Both layers are transparent and made from reflective glass, which aids in reducing heat absorption and emphasises the twisting formation of the structure.
Evolution Tower
Architect: RMJM
Location: Moscow, Russia
Evolution Tower is a 55-storey building with a height of 246 metres, covering a total area of 169,000 square metres. The stocky, futuristic DNA-like twisted shape is created by each floor rotating three degrees relative to the one before it, turning by more than 150 degrees in total.
This gives the structure more of "swirl" motion than a forceful twist, emphasised by a continuous band of curved single-glazing facade with high-performance cold-mirror glass.
Dance of Light tower
Architect: Aedas
Location: Chongqing, China
The Dance of Light office skyscraper in Chongqing, China is a 180-metre-tall tower inspired by the northern lights.
The 39-storey skyscraper has a "twisting angle" of up to 8.8 degrees per floor. Architecture studio Aedas, who designed the tower, believe this is one-and-a-half times more than any other skyscraper, which would make it one of the most extreme buildings of its kind.
The tower’s smooth external facade was created by a double-curved, cold-form glass, which helped produce a refined form, while also allowing light to play off the building’s surface and accentuate the twisting shape.
F&F Tower
Architect: Pinzon Lozano & Asociados
Location: Panama City, Spain
The F&F tower is also known as “Tornillo" — meaning “the screw” in Spanish — is one of the most twisted structures in the world. Designed by Pinzon Lozano & Asociados and located in Panama City's financial district, the F&F Tower stands at 243 metres high and is made up of 53 floors.
The geometric, prism-looking building is made up of a concrete structure, where the upper 39 floors rotate around a central axis, with each floor rotating nine degrees from the previous floor.
United Tower
Architect: Cooperation Investment House and Ahmed Al Qaed Construction
Location: Manama, Bahrain
United Tower, also known as Twisting Tower, is a 50-storey tower built on a specially created artificial island, located in one of the bays of Bahrain.
Reminiscent of a huge drill, the 200-metre-tall tower rises from an octagonal floor plate and twists counter-clockwise, offering 360-degree views of the bay and Corniche of Manama. United Tower comprises a 19-floor hotel, which includes 263 guest rooms and a 900-square-metre ballroom.
Turning Torso
Architect: Santiago Calatrava
Location: Malmo, Sweden
At 190 metres high, the Turning Torso residential skyscraper is the tallest building in Scandinavia.
The neo-futurist building is regarded by many as the first twisted skyscraper in the world. It was inspired by a Calatrava sculpture, also called Twisting Torso, made of white marble and based in turn on the twisting form of a human being.
The angular building is constructed in nine segments of five-storey pentagons that twist as they ascend. The highest segment shifts 90 degrees clockwise from the base segment.
Constructed around a vertical core, each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape supported by an exterior steel framework.
Al Tijaria Tower
Architect: Al Jazera Consultants and NORR
Location: Kuwait
Inspired by the shape of the spiral or helix, Al Tijara Tower is 218 metres tall and made up of 41 floors. Characterised by its curtain-like twist, the body of the tower rotates by 80 degrees as it climbs.
A concentric ring around a circular-shaped core is at the centre of the structure. From there, structural columns allow for the variations in slab-edged columns, creating the twisting shape of the tower. The exterior cladding uses smooth aluminium and glass, giving the tower its sleek appearance.
Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers
Architect: Nikken Sekkei
Location: Nagoya, Japan
Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers is a 170-metre, 36-storey educational school for three different fields — fashion design, computer programming and medical support.
A sturdy inner truss tube is the central pillar supporting three tapering wings. Constructed of concrete-filled, steel tubular columns with structural braces, the truss tube is fixed around the base of the structure.
Architect studio Nikken Sekkei designed the towers to include a number of ecological features, including a double-glazed airflow window system and a natural ventilation system.
Absolute World Towers
Architect: MAD Architects
Location: Ontario, Canada
Absolute World Towers, also known as the Marilyn Monroe Towers, are two 50 and 56-storey skyscrapers with beautifully twisting forms.
Designed by MAD Architects, the towers abandoned traditional vertical lines and hard edges, instead taking inspiration from the fluidity found in nature.
The larger of the two towers twists 198 degrees from the base to the top and the winding, horizontal lines accentuated by unbroken wraparound balconies give the appearance that the towers are moving.
10 architectural marvels from around the world — in pictures
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Metropol Parasol by J Mayer H Architects in Seville, Spain. Getty Images -
Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland. Getty Images -
Gardens by the Bay in Singapore was created in 2012 on reclaimed land adjacent to the city's central business. Getty Images -
Linked Hybrid apartment complex in Beijing. Photo: Steven Holl Architects -
The entrance to the sleek and modern Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas. Getty Images -
Absolute World complex and Burnhamthorpe Road view in Mississauga, Canada. Getty Images -
The National Museum of Qatar, Doha. AFP -
Guangzhou Opera House in China. Getty Images -
Louvre Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island. Chris Whiteoak / The National -
Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National
