Plans to build world's first rotating, shape-shifting skyscraper in Dubai rekindled
The Dynamic Tower, a rotating skyscraper planned for Dubai, which is being developed by Florence-based Dynamic Architecture Group. Dynamic Architecture Group/ Handout via Thomson Reuters Zawya
Dynamic Architecture Group first unveiled project in 2008, now nearly a decade on its architect remains convinced he can make the scheme a reality
PHOTO The Dynamic Tower, a rotating skyscraper planned for Dubai, which is being developed by Florence-based Dynamic Architecture Group.
07 May 2017
Florence-based architecture firm Dynamic Architecture Group is in talks to build a rotating skyscraper in two cities in the United States, but it is still keen on Dubai being the first location for its project, the company’s founder said.
Italian-Israeli architect David Fisher believes his patented tower design has the potential to be a landmark when Dubai hosts Expo 2020, much like the Eiffel Tower greeted visitors to the world fair in Paris in 1889.
“We are in talks in New York already,” he told Thomson Reuters Projects in an interview on the sidelines of the Skyscraper Summit in Dubai. “Even though we are very much ahead in the U.S. - in two cities, New York and Miami - I will be honored if we can start the first one in Dubai.”
Fisher originally announced plans to build the tower in Dubai in 2008, valuing the 80-storey building at $3 billion according to media reports at the time which also quoted him as saying a second Dynamic Tower in Moscow would be completed in 2010.
Neither has been built yet, but Fisher cited improved sector conditions to justify his confidence that he will succeed this time.
“First of all, the market has changed, it was in deep crisis (in 2008),” he said. “Number two, we finished the engineering now; and number three, which is important, we got a patent for the GCC just a few weeks ago, so we feel protected.”
He said the design had not changed but the engineering has been developed further. “We made it more sophisticated,” he said, adding that the floors could now be pre-fabricated in a shipyard.
According to Fisher’s plans, the building’s floors will rotate 360 degrees around a central column so that it will appear to change shape. Residents will be able to spin their apartments using voice-activated technology, while wind turbines sited between floors and solar panels on the roof will produce the tower’s energy, he claims.
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Dubai is amongst Fisher’s top target locations for the tower but others include New York, Miami, London, Paris and Moscow.
Fisher did not comment on whether the firm is in discussions with potential partners for the project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and whether a site had been identified, saying the project would depend on getting the blessing of Dubai’s ruler.
He said Italy’s ambassador to the UAE is supportive of the ‘made-in-Italy’ design and technology project.
“He (the ambassador) is working on helping to make it happen,” said Fisher. “We will join forces with some of the main names of engineering, construction… But we would like if we manage to do it (as) more than just a commercial building, to do it as a symbol or landmark of future technology.”
Why Dubai?
The architect said the emirate was the ideal location to debut his high-rise because it was “a city of sustainability, of skyscrapers, (and) of the future”.
The skyscraper will take less than two years to construct, making it possible to complete before 2020, Fisher said.
“By the time we do the foundation and the core, we build the floors in the shipyard,” he said. “We build the floor and we connect them, and then we lift it. In one day, you have it up.”
The cost of the project would be $500 million-$1 billion, Fisher said, depending on the number of floors, which is substantially less than the 2008 iteration.
“The direct cost is about the same (as traditional construction),” he said.
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Other locations
Meanwhile, Fisher said he is also in contact with other politicians across the globe about his project.
“I got an email from the Mayor of Boston saying I want to bring your Dynamic Tower to Boston as a landmark,” he said. “In India, I am going to see the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) in a month and a half.”
The architect also reminisced about his meeting with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
“He said ‘I want this tower as a landmark for Paris’,” Fisher recalled. “I started to laugh because there is the Eiffel Tower. I said ‘Are you sure? (You have) the Eiffel Tower, what else do you want? It’s the most famous landmark in the world.’ He said: ‘Yes, but the Eiffel Tower is a landmark of past history, we want the landmark of the future’.”
France’s iconic Eiffel Tower was constructed as the entrance to the 1889 World Expo.
“So if it was good for Sarkozy for Paris, (which had the) Eiffel Tower for the first Expo, it could be maybe also be the symbol of the 2020 Expo,” added Fisher. “It’s a landmark not of just beauty but of technology of the future. It’s a strong message.”
