Outlandish Designs For Malmo Skyscraper Site

With the Turning Torso having set the mark in Sweden, for futuristic architecture a competition for a development site in Hyllievång, Malmo, is being run that has attracted international attention from architect practises and some outlandish designs from the finalists.The first proposal by White Arkitekter AB from Sweden is for four 90 metre tall irregular prisms, each a residential that stands on the edges of the plot over a central podium marking the corners of what would be an invisble box similar to something Liebskind would design.The second entry is by Austrian Coop Himmelblau, a 220 metre tall tower overlooking a public square that is flanked by an undulating lower-rise building. The tower will again contain residential space, but also a skybar and observation level. Uniquely the tower opens up at the top creating a fold that billows out spiralling over the sides.The third design by Snøhetta AS from Norway is of a single monolithic 200 metre tall block that appears to have been melted by the rays of the sun and sags tiredly. The front will be chequered with irregular patterning of square cladding over a green backdrop whilst edges feature cross bracing that leads to a curving back. As with the other two designs this will also be largely residential.The fourth proposal is by CF Møller from Denmark who has designed a more regularly shaped tower than the competitors, a thin rectangular box reaching 180 metres with multi floored sky lobbies cutting into it breaking up the monotomy of it whilst the skyscraper reaches for its transparent top. This will also be residential.What all the designs share is a wish to be noticed, they are architecture as theatre. That's not a surprising approach for the finalists to take given the aspirations of Malmo to become a showcase for the best in modern architecture with the hunger that the success of Calatrava's Turning Torso has kicked off.Whether any of these designs can repeat the trick remains to be seen but they certainly show off an often avante garde mindset, a sometimes original approach and always that coolness of design that Scandinavia has come to exude in the 25 years since the horror of ABBA.