Sculpting a Skyscraper

Situated on a tight space at a prominent intersection in the center of Kuwait City (Al Kuwayt), in Kuwait, the Al Hamra Firdous Tower sets itself apart from other extremely tall buildings by its unique sculpted form. An example of architectural expression through structural form on a grand scale, the structural system and exterior form developed symbiotically as the building's geometry was created by a spiral slice of a prismatic volume. The two resultant surfaces are hyperbolic paraboloid reinforced-concrete walls that extend the full height of the tower and function as components of the lateral- and gravity-force-resisting systems. The spiraling geometry was developed by subtracting a quadrant of a typical filleted square floor plan and incrementally rotating the subtracted portion at each higher level. The lateral system for resisting the controlling wind and gravity load combinations consists of a cast-in-place reinforced-concrete shear wall core supplemented by a perimeter moment-resisting frame.