The Vortex Tower was the working name of a London skyscraper design by
Make Architects, a London-based business headed by
Ken Shuttleworth. The building would have risen to a height of
['' The Guardian'']
Twisting tower will be London's highest
19 June 2004 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
A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...
would have twisted into a spiral
shape with a tapering centre and wide base. The
project
A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
was based on a different concept, with rotation enabling the use of leaning
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
s as straight structural elements of
hyperboloid
In geometry, a hyperboloid of revolution, sometimes called a circular hyperboloid, is the surface generated by rotating a hyperbola around one of its principal axes. A hyperboloid is the surface obtained from a hyperboloid of revolution by defo ...
.
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.
['' Architects' Journal'',]
Shuttleworth stunned by Vortex's 'clear similarity' to Kobe Tower
, 8 July 2004
See also
*
Hyperboloid structure
*
List of hyperboloid structures
References
External links
The Vortex*
Make proposes 300-metre Vortex for LondonLondon architect’s vision for tall buildings
{{coord missing, London
Skyscrapers in the City of London
Hyperboloid structures
Unbuilt buildings and structures in the United Kingdom
Unbuilt skyscrapers