Canton TV tower - 广州电塔
The Guangzhou TV tower (also called 广州电视观光塔 or 海心塔) is one of the world′s most spectacular new buildings. It is not only the world′s tallest TV tower (610m), beating Toronto′s CN-tower (535m), but also one of the most beautiful structures. Information Based Architecture, a visionary architectural practice from Amsterdam designed the building.Mark Hemel, the IBA architect that together with his partner Barbara Kuit designed the Guangzhou TV tower, comments, ″Where most skyscrapers bear ′male′ features; being introvert, strong, straight, rectangular, and based on repetition, we wanted to create a ′female′ tower being complex, transparent, curvy and gracious.″ ″Our aim was to design a free-form tower with a rich and human-like identity that would represent Guangzhou as a dynamic and exciting city. We therefore wanted it to be non-symmetrical so that the building would look as if ′in movement′ and ′alive′. The result is a tower like a ′sexy female′, the very reason that earned her the nickname: ′super-model′.″
Barbara Kuit adds: ″Our aim was, and this is also the main challenge for a tower of this size, to create a tower that feels friendly to people: A tower that would not feel massive or dominating, but instead would invite people in, and would be rich in offering a variation in experiences. Many of these are designed as physical experiences. There is for instance a skywalk, a spiraling staircase outside the core, that takes visitors up through the structures ′waist′ while enjoying the view. The top is designed as an open air sloping panoramic deck (54m x 42m) where one can sit down and enjoy the view while feeling the wind through one′s hair.″