Rotating building developer to break ground in November

Every apartment owner a 360-degree view over the period of one week as the building turns on its axis.

Each apartment will have a 360 degree view over time.

DUBAI // Dubai Property Ring, a developer with plans to build 24 buildings around the world that rotate through 360 degrees, says it will break ground on its first project in the planned Dubai-based City of Arabia community next month. "We are preparing to launch sales very soon," said Tav Singh, the company's director, on the third day of Cityscape Dubai yesterday. He said prices on the seventh floor would start at Dh7,000 (US$1,905) per square foot. The 55 Time Dubai building will be constructed on a circular set of hydraulic pads that rotate very slowly, giving every apartment owner a 360-degree view over the period of one week. The approximately Dh700 million building would have 200 apartments, and "every one of them has a premium", Mr Singh added. "Each one has the kind of view that you pay extra for." The groundbreaking of 55 Time Dubai would mark the beginning of a race for rotating buildings in Dubai. Another developer, David Fisher of Dynamic Architecture, has announced an even taller building where individual floors rotate at different speeds. Leslie E Robertson Associates, which did the engineering for the 500-metre Mori Building in Shanghai, has also been hired to create the technology for Mr Fisher's building, known as "Rotating Tower". Mr Fisher has not revealed the exact location of his building. Nicholas Cooper, the engineer who devised the system for 55 Time Dubai, said he could not comment on Mr Fisher's project because none of the technical details about the rotational technology had been released. He said the key to rotating an entire building was "simplicity". "The most important thing to allay fears is that it will move very quickly," he said. "It has to be a dignified timepiece, not a merry-go-round." The entire 80,000-tonne building would sit on a circle of bearings that would activate each hour to lift the building up and rotate it by about 50cm. A central core would run up the height of the building and hold the water and plumbing system. Electricity would be transferred into the building by a similar set-up to a subway car, with a curved metal track that conducts power by touch. The system would be modular so that each component could easily be repaired. Dubai Property Group has plans to build one of the "Times Residences" in each of the world's 24 time zones, including New York, Paris and Mumbai. [e-mail]