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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our weekly Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Kuwait City's Al Hamra Tower is a national icon. With a 412-metre height and 80 floors, it is the tallest building in the country. But it's the design that is particularly awe-inspiring. Unlike anything else in the world, the office building's profile is seemingly carved from a prism, with the building's skin wrapping around a central void like a partially rolled-up piece of paper. The spiralling glazed facade terminates with a peaked roof that gives the building an organic and distinct silhouette. The surgical peeling of the sinuous structure's envelope reveals the building's inner core wall. The solid stone finish of this southern elevation is softened by a perforated pattern of angled windows, which helps add more texture to the tower.
Before construction began in 2005, renderings of the project depicted the relationship between the tower's glossy facade and the monochromatic south wall. The finished development closely matches the illustrations. After completion in 2011, Al Hamra Tower was included in the list of best inventions of the year by TIME magazine.
