The sixth annual Emporis Skyscraper Award goes to Turning Torso, a twisting skyscraper designed by Santiago Calatrava in Malmö, Sweden. Turning Torso is the tallest building in Scandinavia. At 190 meters it is the tallest residential building west of Moscow in Europe. Turning Torso was chosen by an overwhelming majority of votes on the Emporis Award Jury. Members of the jury called it "highly adventurous and innovative", "the epitome of structural expressionism", and "the result of enlightened and adventurous patronage", noting that it "looks different from almost every angle".
Emporis Skyscraper Award 2005
Turning Torso chosen as best new skyscraper
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Winning Design
Turning Torso is a new model for flexible design in skyscrapers. The building is formed by stacking 9 cubes of five stories each, rotating each cube about 11 degrees from the one below it, and holding the twisting formation together with an exterior skeleton on two sides. From bottom to top the building completes a 90 degree turn. The stacked cubes are a new interpretation of modular skyscraper designs by brutalist architects of the 1960s, and foreshadow later designs such as Calatrava's yet-unbuilt plan for 80 South Street in New York City.
Turning Torso gives an iconic presence to the skyline of Sweden's third-largest city, visible in the distance from Copenhagen in Denmark. It is the tallest building in Scandinavia, the fifteenth-tallest building in Europe, and the tallest mainly-residential building in Western Europe.
The award presentation for Turning Torso will be held on May 15, 2006, at the Turning Torso in Malmö (11:00 AM). Runners-up for the Emporis Skyscraper Award 2005 were Q1 Tower in Gold Coast City, designed by Sunland Group Ltd.; and Montevideo in Rotterdam, designed by Mecanoo.