GAD Editorial · Published ·
The form came from a sculpture. Santiago Calatrava's Turning Torso — opened in Malmö, Sweden, on 27 August 2005 — began as one of the architect's own twisting marble figures, a study of the human body in motion. Scaled up to 190 metres and 54 storeys, it became the world's first twisted skyscraper: nine cubes stacked around a central core, each rotated slightly from the one below, for a total turn of 90 degrees from base to crown.
The twist is not decoration. The rotation gives every one of the 147 apartments a corner view and breaks the wind loads that a straight tower of that height would have to fight. A concrete core with an external steel spine — the "backbone" — holds the whole spiral together, and the facade panels, each one unique, were manufactured to follow the turn.
The building collected the profession's approval quickly: the Gold Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2005 and the CTBUH 10 Year Award in 2015. It was the tallest building in the Nordic region until Karlatornet in Gothenburg surpassed it in 2022 — but height was never really the point. The point was that a residential tower could be a work of sculpture, and that a city's skyline could turn, literally, on an idea.
Living in a sculpture has practical consequences. The rotation means no two floors share the same orientation, so each of the 147 apartments gets a distinct relationship to the strait, the city, and the sky — every home a corner home. At the summit, meeting rooms take in a panorama that reaches across the water to Denmark. The tower works as a vertical neighbourhood rather than a stack of identical units, and it carries a quiet lesson for every city chasing height: the most memorable tall buildings are rarely the tallest for long, but the ones whose form lodges permanently in the mind.
Key facts
- Completed: 2005 (opened 27 August 2005)
- Location: Malmö, Sweden
- Architect: Santiago Calatrava
- Scale: 190 m, 54 stories, 90° twist, 147 apartments
- Recognition: Gold Emporis Skyscraper Award, 2005; CTBUH 10 Year Award, 2015; tallest building in the Nordic region until surpassed by Karlatornet (Gothenburg) in 2022