Tall buildings are generally just tall buildings for the most part. Unless they’re particularly tall or have some distinguishing features (see the Robot Building), there’s no real way to tell them apart. A city like New York has so many skyscrapers, they just blend together (apart from the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center). However, once in awhile, a skyscraper comes along that doesn’t play by the rules. Sure, it’s tall. However, this one is so much more than that. This skyscraper is DYNAMIC. It is a REVOLVING skyscraper, set to be completed in Dubai in 2020. Believe me, it is exactly what it sounds like, and it’s pretty amazing (and essentially, the shifting staircases in Harry Potter come to life).
The Dynamic Tower, also known as the Da Vinci Tower, is set to be built in Dubai at a cost of approximately $330 million dollars. It is proposed to be 1,378 feet tall or 420 meters with 80 floors. Each floor is designed to rotate independently, which causes the tower to constantly change shapes. Each floor will rotate a maximum of 20 feet or 6 meters per minute. This results in one full rotation in 90 minutes.
The entire building will be able to be built more quickly due to it being the world’s first prefabricated skyscraper. It has been said that 90% of the tower can be built in a factory and then shipped to the construction site. The prefabricated parts of the tower would reduce costs and the number of workers needed.
The tower would be powered by wind turbines and solar panels. There would be enough surplus energy from this to power five more similar sized buildings. The wind turbines and solar panels are capable of generating up to 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy.
The main issue is actually getting the project built. It was originally proposed back in 2008 by David Fisher and was supposed to be completed in 2010. In 2009, construction was aiming for a 2011 completion. As of 2016, there has been no announcement as to where and when construction will begin.
Back in 2001, the Suite Vollard opened up with the same concept, however, the Suite Vollard is 15 floors and 160 feet or 50 meters tall, paling in comparison to the Dynamic Tower.
