Vortex Tower

The Vortex Tower was the working name of a London skyscraper designed by Ken Shuttleworth's Make Architects. The building would have risen to a height of 300 metres (980 ft)[1] with 70 floors. The Vortex Tower was proposed for the edge of the City of London outer eastern fringe, but was never built.

The planned shape of the Vortex Tower was a hyperboloid of revolution. The structure would have twisted into a spiral shape with a tapering centre and wide base. The project was based on a different concept, with rotation enabling the use of leaning columns as straight structural elements of hyperboloid.

Shuttleworth expressed surprise when the design was compared to that of the similar Kobe Port Tower, built in Japan in 1963. He said "I haven't seen it before and it was not a source of inspiration for the Vortex." and noted that the Kobe designers "did not use the full envelope of the building", and that the towers would be different colours.[2]

See also

References
  1. The Guardian, Twisting tower will be London's highest, 19 June 2004
  2. Architects' Journal, "Shuttleworth stunned by Vortex's 'clear similarity' to Kobe Tower", 8 July 2004

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