Modern Sweden.

Do you all remember Frank posting a piccie of this building for us?



Well I thought you'd all like to know a bit more about it and see what one of the apartemnts inside it looks like.

"The design is based on a sculpture by Santiago Calatrava called Twisting Torso. It uses nine five-story cubes that twist as it rises; the top-most segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor. Each floor basically consists of a rectangular section surrounding the central core, along with a triangular section, which is partially supported by an exterior steel scaffold. The two bottom cubes are intended as office space. Cubes three through nine houses 149 luxury apartments.

The Twisting Torso sculpture is a white marble piece based on the form of a twisting human being. Johnny Örbäck, former CEO of the Turning Torso contractor and Board Chairman of the Malmö branch of the co-operative housing association HSB, saw the sculpture in 1999 and contacted Calatrava to ask him to design a building using the same concept. Construction started in the summer of 2001.

One reason for the building of Turning Torso was to reestablish a recognizable skyline for Malmö since the removal of Kockumskranen ("The Kockum Crane") in 2002, which was located less than a kilometer from Turning Torso. The local politicians deemed it important for the inhabitants to have a symbol for Malmö - Kockumskranen, which was a large crane that had been used for ship building somewhat symbolized the city's blue collar roots. Turning Torso can be seen as a monument of a new, more internationalised Malmö."

Here one of the apartements as promised.



A got a friend of my youngest son to post the info to me in an e.mail. :-D

 

It's quite an amazing structure to stand next to. Plays with your head a bit. The residents are made up of a lot of people who undoubtedly work in high paying jobs in Malmö or Copenhagen in Denmark, which is a 20 minute train ride across the öresund bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark.

Thanks for the info Eils You wouldn't see it on the skyline today though, rain rain rain.

 

Me neither Netty!!!

Here's a pic of the the öresund bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark that Frank mentioned in his reply.

 

"But I don't think I'd actually like to live up there, there is something in me that needs direct contact with the earth"

In my case Zuzu it's called a phobia of heights!!!!