background
skyscraper

The Canton Tower - 广州塔

The Guangzhou Tower (广州电视观光塔) is one of the world′s most spectacular new buildings. It is not only the world′s tallest TV tower (600m), beating Toronto′s CN-tower (553m), but also a surprisingly beautiful structure.

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: ′Xiao Man Yao′.″ which means "young girl with tight waist"

For more information on the designers see:IBA - Information Based Architecture, a visionary architectural practice from Amsterdam with a fresh methodology.