Preview of World's First Rotating Skyscraper

Preview of World's First Rotating Skyscraper


June 24, 2008 - Is it the skyscraper of the future? Or just a "pie in the sky" idea?

Italian architect David Fisher unveiled in New York Tuesday the design for what he's calling the world's first "building in motion." It's an 80-story residential tower with revolving floors, ostensibly set for construction in Dubai this fall.

"It's the first building that is built that is dynamic, changing its shape. You can adjust the shape any given moment." Fisher says he is also slated to build one of the "dynamic" buildings in Moscow, and, he hopes, New York City. He says the buildings also double as generators: wind turbines on every floor will provide power. "Wind has a very negative affect on skyscrapers we all know. So I say 'why do we want to fight the wind?' Why don't we use the wind, to our own benefit?"

The Dubai condos are going for three-thousand dollars a square foot. Lifts will allow penthouse residents to park their cars right in their apartments.

Fisher says the building parts will be prefabricated in a factory in Italy then assembled at the final location. The architect says he'd like to have the Dubai building ready to live in by 2010.

Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, New York

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