Why is this forest floating 1000 feet above Taiwan's skyline, apparently sitting on a blue glow of anti-gravity beams? It's the Taiwan Tower, a giant steel superstructure that may become the most surreal piece of engineering I've ever seen.
The renderings give you an idea of how weird and wonderful this thing will be. It really blows my mind to think that they are actually going to build this ethereal steel column labyrinth, which would be as tall as the Eiffel Tower.
The banyan tree-like design, which was created by Tokyo-based architect Sou Fujimoto, just won the first prize in the Taiwan Tower International Competition.
It would be made entirely of steel, with perimeter columns, inner columns, intermediate columns, spiral beams and roof beams all of them circular, 800 millimeters in diameter and hollow.
It will be surrounded by parks. In fact, it will look as if someone cut a wedge of the terrain and pushed up in the air. [Sou Fujimoto via Archdaily]