Year: 2020

Twisted Skyscrapers

Aside Markozen.com Buildings

One of the latest design trends that seems to have found appeal among some architects is a towering skyscraper that twists its way up to the top. Possibly the first, modern, twisted skyscraper constructed was the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden. The residential building is constructed in nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises, with the topmost segment twisted 90 degrees with respect to the ground floor. The construction of this building was featured on Discovery Channel’s “Extreme Engineering” TV program. The tower received some more publicity when on 18 August 2006, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped off it and parachuted to the ground.

After the successful completion of the Turning Torso, designers started proposing similar audacious structures elsewhere. Many projects got shelved, others were passed and built, and a handful of them are currently under construction. Here we explore some of the most twisted skyscraper designs around the world, but first, a few pictures of the tower that started it all.

 

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Turning Torso, Malmo, Sweden

The project was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and officially opened on 27 August 2005. The tower reaches a height of 190 metres (623 feet) with 54 stories – 147 apartments, relax/lounge/spa, wine cellar followed by around-the-clock Concierge service 365 days a year. Each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape rotating around the vertical core, which is supported by an exterior steel framework. Completed in 2005, the Turning Torso is the tallest skyscraper in Sweden and all the Nordic countries, and presently the third tallest residential building in Europe.

 

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Infinity Tower, Dubai

Infinity Tower is 306 metres (1,004 ft) tall with 76 stories and is under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which when completed, will become the world’s tallest high rise building with a twist of 90˚. The tower is designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill SOM architectural group, the same group who built the Burj Khalifa also in Dubai and Trump Tower in Chicago.

Construction of the building began in February 2006 and by 2012, the intended height was reached. Unlike the Turning Torso, which is a series of cantilevered plates rotated about a straight structure, Infinity Tower’s much larger floor plates actually require the structure to be twisted as it raises from level to level. Each floor is rotated by 1.2˚ to achieve the full 90˚ spiral, creating the shape of a helix. The tower will have residential apartments, conference rooms, tennis courts, pools, a state of the art gymnasium, a nursery and a spa.

 

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Absolute World Towers, Mississauga, Canada

Absolute World is a residential twin tower skyscraper complex in Mississauga, Ontario. One is 179 meters tall while the other stands at 161 meters. Both towers twist 209 degrees from the base to the top. The building has been nicknamed the “Marilyn Monroe” tower due to its curvaceous, hourglass figure likened to actress Marilyn Monroe.

 

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Kuwait Trade Center

Kuwait Trade Center, also known as Al Tijaria Tower, is a magnificent 218 meter tall tower in Kuwait City and currently the tallest building in Kuwait.

 

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Revolution Tower, Panama City

The Revolution Tower is a controversial “corkscrew” tower complex of modern offices in Panama City, just a few minutes away from the banking center. The 242-meter reinforced concrete tower consist of 52 floors and makes a 360 degree turn as it rises up.

 

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Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers, Nagoya

Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers is a 170-meter, 36-storey educational facility located on a busy main street of Nagoya City in front of Nagoya Station in Nakamura-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. The towers’ wing-like shape, narrow at the top, changes the rotation axis as they rise and create an organic curve. Spiral Towers appears to change shape slightly when viewed from different angles, giving an elegant yet dynamic impression. The strong inner truss tube is visible through gaps between the three wings, highlighting the bold design and structure while demonstrating the overall consistency.

The towers are highlighted with many ecological features, such as a double-glassed air flow window system and a natural air ventilation system.

 

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What happens when pilots are too eager to get airborne

Aside Markozen.com Aviation

 

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In aviation, a tailstrike is an event in which the rear empennage of an aircraft strikes the runway. This can happen during takeoff of a fixed-wing aircraft if the pilot pulls up too rapidly, leading to the rear end of the fuselage touching the runway. It can also occur during landing if the pilot raises the nose too aggressively. This is often the result of an attempt to land nearer to the runway threshold.

Tailstrike incidents are rarely dangerous in themselves but the aircraft must be thoroughly inspected and repairs may be difficult and expensive if the pressure hull is involved. Inadequate inspections and improper repairs to damaged airframes after a tailstrike have been known to cause catastrophic structural failure long after the tailstrike incident following multiple pressurization cycles .

 

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Military is not exempt from the phenomena

 

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

 

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The Elegance and Symmetry of Diving Pigs

Aside Markozen.com Animals

Swine across China are jumping or being shoved off platforms and splashing into pools and ponds, where they bob around before paddling to shore.
Images on the Internet and reports in newspapers suggest that creating a leaping, amphibious pig is another realm where China, which raises more than half the world’s pigs, can claim global pre-eminence. Online photos show piglets prodded to dive off a bridge into a lake. Others show a spotted-pig triathlon of diving, swimming and hurdling.
Aquatic swine are not exclusive to China. Australia has a family with diving pigs, and in the Bahamas you can frolic in the surf with them. But China’s rural entrepreneurs have turned the pursuit into a tourist draw and a selling point for pork. Proponents say that diving pigs are healthier, leaner and tastier.

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“We wanted to make the pigs grow healthier, because usually they’re too lazy,” said Zou Wei, a manager in the planning department of Tuhe Black Pork, a company in Shandong Province that puts some of its hogs through a routine of diving and swimming. “To start with, the pigs don’t like it, but you force one onto the diving platform and it slides down, the others see that and follow.”

The Piggy Kingdom Family Amusement Park in Zhejiang Province has taken the amusement factor to new heights. Pictures and video from the park show pigs being heaved off a platform and thrashing in the air until smacking into water 39 feet below. That’s about six feet more than the tallest Olympic diving platform.

“The Piggy Amusement Park is a bit smelly,” one visitor said, according to a report on the local government’s website. “But the piglets were cute diving into the water and the kids loved it.”

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This dark-haired porker has the technique down pat.

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Judges give this red-haired piglet tens all-around!

As with human athletes, it’s a matter of mind-set, said Yang Shiliu, a former researcher in the Hunan Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Institute, who is considered one of the foremost experts on pig diving.

“The occasional divers will be hesitant,” Mr. Yang said in a telephone interview from Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province in southern China. “Once they’re used to it, they don’t mind.”

Besides, he said, pigs are more adept at swimming than other athletic activities. The Salon pig-breeding company in Hunan considered making pigs jog for exercise, he said, but found that their trotters were too dainty for their bulky bodies. Moreover, he said, “aquatic exercise is a bit more intense.”

Some people have been appalled by the spectacle of pigs being pushed into ponds. “Making pigs dive into water is abusing them,” one person said. “Our citizens have no heart.”

Animal rights advocates, however, have been restrained in their criticism. Jeff Zhou, a China representative for Compassion in World Farming, which campaigns against animal abuse, said pigs in China’s factory farms suffer worse fates than diving, including castration without anesthesia and immobilization in sow stalls and farrowing crates.

But platform diving was not necessarily a pig’s idea of fun, he added.

“It can bring a certain kind of stress to them at the very beginning,” he said. He said farmers should base exercise regimes “on the needs of animals, not the amusement of humans.”

Pig-diving proponents insist that they are doing both.

Thomas Barbey: Photo Manipulation Artist before Photoshop

Aside Markozen.com Art

Thomas Barbèy (born 1958, Greenwich, Connecticut) grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, across the street from the “Caran D’ache” factory, the largest manufacturer of art supplies. He started drawing seriously at the age of 13, using black “encre de Chine” and gouaches for color. His influences were Philippe Druillet, Roger Dean and H.R. Giger.

After living in Geneva for 17 years and designing posters for musical bands, he decided to move to Italy. Thomas lived in Milan for 15 years making a living as a successful recording artist, lyricist and fashion photographer. Today, he resides in Las Vegas and travels the world, taking his camera wherever he goes.

Thomas has been a photographer for over twenty years now and prefers to use his old Canon AE1s when he shoots in 35mm or his RB67 when he shoots in medium format. More recently, he has been doing Black and White Photomontages for the sole purpose of doing Fine Art, without working for a specific client.

He’s combined several images taken over a period of twenty years to create surreal situations with the help of the enlarger in a dark room. His work has a specific style and is very characteristic. He only works with Black and White, including Sepia toning at times. Thomas exhibits in galleries throughout the world and is included in many private collections.