A moving skyscraper in Dubai

There is a lot of money being thrown around on development projects these days across the Gulf kingdoms of the Arabian Peninsula, and no place is more emblematic of this construction frenzy than is the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Nevertheless, some projects still boggle the mind, like Dubai’s proposed “moving skyscraper” – an 80-story building in which each floor can spin independently, thus creating the effect of a shape-shifting building. Not only that, but the entire structure will be powered by built-in wind turbines. The BBC has the story and a video.

The Dynamic Tower design is made up of 80 pre-fabricated apartments which will spin independently of one another.

“It’s the first building that rotates, moves, and changes shape,” said architect David Fisher, who is Italian, at a news conference in New York. “This building never looks the same, not once in a lifetime,” he added.

The 420-metre (1,378-foot) building’s apartments would spin a full 360 degrees, at voice command, around a central column by means of 79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.

The slender building would be energy self-sufficient as the turbines would produce enough electricity to power the entire building and even feed extra power back into the grid.

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