Buildings with a slope
In ancient times, the slope of a tower or building was the result of a miscalculation during construction. Today, the slope in architecture is an architect's creative idea. Engineers and designers are able to implement the most incredible projects of architects.
In 1919, the constructivist architect Vladimir Tatlin created a tower that was planned to be erected in Moscow or Leningrad. The height is 400 meters. The slope from the normal is 23.5 degrees. The planned materials are glass and steel.
The project of the tower was a combination of two inclined metal spirals consisting of buildings of various geometric shapes located one above the other, but at the same time harmoniously interconnected. By means of mechanisms, the buildings rotated around their axis. The lower, largest building had the shape of a cube, rotated at a rate of one revolution per year. Above it was a pyramid-shaped building with a rotation speed of one revolution per month. The speed of the cylinder is one revolution per day. There are only models, drawings and drawings that impress to this day.
These are the world's first sloping skyscrapers. Built in 1994 in the style of postmodernism, the towers are inclined to each other at an angle of 15 degrees. The height is 114 meters, 26 floors. Architecture a la the Leaning Tower of Pisa was used in the construction. Thanks to a successful design solution, the architecture of the composition still remains unique. Both towers were built at the same time, and their construction also ended at the same time. Puerta de Europa are built according to the designs of American architects Philip Johnson and John Bergey with funds allocated by Kuwait (Kuwait Investments Office).
The frame of the building is made of stainless steel, it is clearly visible from the outside. Inside there is a counterweight made of monolithic concrete measuring 60 × 10 × 10 meters, which balances the 15-degree slope. There are helicopter landing pads on the roofs. The left platform is painted blue, and the right one is red. Also on the left tower you can see the logo of the oldest Spanish bank "Caja Madrid". On the right tower is the symbol of the largest construction company "Realia". But it was applied much later than the first logo.
The area of the conference hall of this lecture building, which has the outline of the letter V on the plan, is 13,700 sq. m.
Such an unusual shape is explained by the architects' task to fit into the boundaries of the building the volume of the hall for 1000 seats (in the drawing — a half-open fan, or a circle sector) almost three floors high. That is why the facades of the building have a negative slope, and one of the most striking architectural details is a rounded cantilever outrigger resembling the bow of a ship.
The six-storey structure is supported by three load-bearing pylons installed at the points of articulation of the lines of the imaginary letter V. At the same points, staircases and elevator shafts are adjacent to the stiffness cores. The facade system consists of vertical glued wooden beams and diagonal inclined lintels. They form a "grid".
The Zaha Hadid Architects project. As usual, the building turned out to be extraordinary. The task was not easy: the modern new building of the Institute had to be "inscribed" in the context of the buildings of the 19th century, and all the main technical premises fit in one laconic building. It turned out to be a building with a total area of 3,000 square meters, having a three-part structure that reflects the three main objectives of the institute: a space for research activities, a meeting place with university guests and the "connection" of the university to scientific processes around the world.
The three-part structure develops vertically, and each part is equipped with its own entrance, which is facilitated by a significant slope on the site. The building is located on a small plot with a relief difference of 7 meters between the northern and southern borders. The area of the first three floors of the building has been reduced and the 4th-5th floor and the roof-terrace have been noticeably expanded due to the 21-meter cantilever extension.
The building is made of monolithic reinforced concrete. Concrete modules have a curly outer plane. The relief of the decor on the facade, the sloping slopes of the windows, the stitching of the seams — all these details are impeccable.
The tower is part of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. It is the tallest tilted tower in the world. The height is 175 meters. There are observation decks on it, offering a breathtaking view of Montreal.
Visitors can reach the top on a glass transparent funicular, which accommodates 76 passengers. The funicular is the only one in the world operating in a curved structure. It has a hydraulic system that allows the cabin to remain horizontal during the two-minute trip to the top.
The angle of inclination of the tower is 45 degrees. By the way, the slope of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is only 5 degrees. How can a structure with such an inclined surface hold on without falling? The answer to this riddle lies in the mass ratio: the top of the tower has a mass of 8000 tons, and the concrete base has a mass of 145,000 tons.
A unique 160-meter inclined skyscraper. It was put into operation at the end of 2011. Even at the construction stage , the skyscraper was included in The Guinness Book of Records as the building with the largest slope in the world. The deviation from the vertical axis is 18 degrees in a westerly direction.
The foundation of the skyscraper, built according to the project of the RMJM architectural firm, is reinforced with 490 piles driven to a depth of 30 meters into the ground. The basis of the construction of the building itself is a steel reinforced "skeleton" of 8.5 thousand plates of diagonal construction. It is he who distributes the load and does not allow the tower to fall.
728 large glass panels in the form of cut diamonds are mounted on top of a reinforcing steel mesh, each of which consists of 18 glasses and weighs about 5 tons. In total, there are 12.5 thousand glasses on the facade of the tower.
Excalibur is the world's highest climbing wall. Holland is not located in a mountainous area, so the city authorities decided to create artificial conditions for those who prefer active recreation and an influx of adrenaline.
The height of the structure is 37 meters, specifically curved shape. Only experienced climbers will be able to completely overcome the obstacle. Access to the wall is unlimited, and everyone can use it absolutely free of charge.
The building was built in 2009, now the main office of the Central Chinese television is located there. This building has become the largest project of the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. The looped building was a "deliberate attack" on the banal forms of familiar skyscrapers.
The height is 234 meters, 54 floors. The view is very original: the building is a ring-shaped structure of five vertical and horizontal sections. Two inclined towers connected from above by cantilever outriggers: a protruding console 75 m to the west, 67 m to the south.
Both towers are deflected from the vertical by 6 degrees and rotated so that they support and balance each other. The main feature of the skyscraper design is the spatial lattice of the building, which forms the main volume. Its pattern is well read on the facade. The integrity of the image is formed by silver-gray glass panels in harmony with the Beijing sky.
The Santiago Calatrava project. The second name is "The Tower of Calatrava". The total height of the elegant tower is 136 m. The architect developed the concept of the silhouette of a futuristic structure based on the image of an athlete-torchbearer. The tilt of the main vertical of the composition by 17 degrees towards the city gives the tower additional dynamism, and the semicircular crown in the upper part seems to crown the entire hill.
The tower is based on a structure resembling a bowl on an inclined elegant leg. The support of the structure in the form of a wide "umbrella", lined with white ceramic mosaic, smoothly passes into the roof of an office building. In the center of the bowl there is a TV antenna-needle, which also serves as a sundial.
This "Leaning Tower of Pisa" has actually been decorating the American city of Niles in Illinois for more than 70 years (Niles is a suburb of the Illinois capital Chicago).
Pragmatic Americans have made their leaning tower functional: it is water—pressure for its intended purpose. It was built in the early 30s of the XX century as an exact copy of the Pisa One - but exactly half the size of the original. The angle of deviation from the vertical is 5.3 degrees.
You can safely call Bella Sky the most inclined hotel in the world. The hotel was designed by architects from Studio 3XN. The shape of the building is unusual. It consists of two interconnected towers with a height of 76.5 meters with an angle of inclination of 15 degrees. 23 floors. The area is 42,000 square meters.
Inclined towers are not just a bold architectural experiment, they have a specific purpose. Each room of the hotel offers panoramic views of the landscape of the Amager Park and the new Orestad district, as well as all the historic roofs of Copenhagen. All 814 rooms are made in the Northern Art Nouveau style — simple, functional, high level of design and materials. The interiors are made of leather, maple and oak. The Bella Sky Hotel is informally called the "dancing couple".
Daniel Libeskind's project is the first large—scale project in the USA and a unique design solution for America. When looking at the building, it seems that it is falling apart. There are no vertical walls in the museum. There is not a single centered node in the design, while all nodes are different, up to 8 rods can intersect in them.
The stability of the structure is achieved through the use of steel plates embedded in a reinforced concrete foundation. All supporting columns are attached to them. The floor becomes a kind of screed for the walls, and all the beams of the structure work mainly for stretching.
ARUP designers used a special 3D model for the calculation. This is the first project for Arup when the estimate documentation in 3D was a direct contractual requirement. With all the unconventionality of the design, thanks to this model and the good work of the designers, all the elements were completed at the factory. They were only collected on the site. Not only all the joints of the structure were calculated, but also the placement of holes in the bearing elements for laying engineering communications. The "nose" or "cliff" of the museum is stretched to a height of 37.2 m.
Foundation: prefabricated tape on piles (116 piles with a diameter from 61 to 122 cm, depending on the distance to the rock). Load-bearing structures: steel frame on bolted and welded joints (weight 2740 tons, 3100 steel beams + 16,500 other steel parts, 50,000 bolts, 2850 welding seams). Enclosing structures: finishing with titanium and granite slabs.
Many critics believe that the abundance of non—vertical walls is a disadvantage. However, the museum staff is convinced that the architecture of the building is one of the museum attractions.
The Lakhta Center complex built in St. Petersburg is unique not only in the presence of a skyscraper. The adjacent multifunctional building surpasses the high-rise in area and is not inferior in unique design solutions.
The height of the building is variable — from 22 to 84 meters. At a maximum height of 84 meters, the departure of the console is 25 meters, which forms an inclined shape of the building.
Large-span lobbies on the lower floors of the building support 36-meter Virendel trusses.