If the Chinese zodiac calendar was flexible, 2015 could well be the Year of the Skyscraper, with ten new buildings over 1,100 feet in height set to open before the end of the year. But innovative designs are being carried out closer to the ground as well. Here’s our handy guide to some of the most interesting buildings slated for completion next year.
432 Park Avenue by Rafael Viñoly, New York, USA
The newest addition to the Manhattan skyline is an 89-story luxury residential tower boasting some of New York’s most expensive condos (including a $95 million penthouse unit). Tall and strikingly thin, it remains visually separate from the surrounding landscape for now, although future plans for buildings with similar designs could render it just another New York skyscraper.
Capital Market Authority Tower by HOK, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
The Capital Market Authority Tower was designed for the desert, with an external layer of fins, gantries, and perforated panels to provide shade and minimize cooling loads. The exterior features a repeating prismatic pattern in a nod to geometric ornamentation in Islamic art.
© HPP Architects
Deutsches Fussballmuseum (German Football Museum) by HPP Architects, Dortmund, Germany
An architectural response to the declaration “we are football,” the museum consists of an elevated exhibition space encased in a metal box that appears to float over the ground floor. A giant television screen adds to the feeling of being at a stadium.
Federation Tower by Peter Schweger and Sergei Tchoban, Moscow, Russia
The Federation Tower complex will consist of east and west towers with a spindly, 1,470-foot spire in between. The design itself wouldn’t make headlines, but for the fact that the east tower is set to be the tallest building in Europe.
Louvre Abu Dhabi by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The interior of the Louvre’s second branch is mired in controversy, but the exterior is a welcome oasis. Its perforated dome both pays homage to a staple of Islamic architecture and allows light to filter through, casting the interior in shadow with occasional bursts of sunlight. Manmade waterways weave through and surround the complex.
MahaNakhon by Ole Scheeren, Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok’s tallest building will perhaps be best known for its unique pixilated façade, which appears to swirl around the building’s core.
New Bauhaus Museum by MenoMenoPiu Architects, Weimar, Germany
A work of architecture intended to house a museum devoted to Germany’s most important architectural movement, this structure is designed to feel like an open square in which the old city, the new city, and public greenery converge.
© Gensler
Shanghai Tower by Gensler, Shanghai, China
At a height of 2,073 feet, the Shanghai Tower will be the tallest building in China — and the second tallest in the world, after the Burj Khalifa — when it opens next year. The tower is made up of nine cylindrical buildings stacked on top of each other, creating a façade that twists as it rises. Glass atriums created by the space between the inner and outer layers will provide public space for visitors.
Shimao Wonderland Intercontinental by Atkins, Songjiang, China
Visitors may come for the hotel, which is being built in an abandoned quarry and will feature underwater rooms, but they’ll be unlikely to stay for the location, which happens to be the middle of nowhere. Still, it’s an intriguing concept, and designs include plans for an artificial lake and hanging gardens.
Taipei Performing Arts Center by OMA, Taipei, Taiwan
This performance space seeks to encourage experimental productions through its form: Three auditoriums — (two cubic, one spherical) — connected by a central cube covered in corrugated glass. Two of the spaces can be combined into an even larger, 328-foot-long “super theater.”
World One by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Mumbai, India
It will be the world’s tallest residential complex, and the developer, the Lodha Group, hopes it will be the iconic building for which Mumbai is best known. The Lodha Group also aims to have the project receive LEED Gold certification.