This unbuilt development combines four million square feet of retail and commercial space, a hotel, a convention center, and a ten-thousand-seat stadium among other facilities in a cluster of six buildings on a central plinth. Two of the six towers are inclined to form A-frames with their opposite towers. All are tied together with a collar that strengthens the structure and allows circulation between the towers. Individually, the towers are so slender that they would require additional support. Joined together, they create a stiff ensemble capable of sustaining large lateral and vertical loads. The model, with its skin clad in tree bark, poetically invokes Aesop’s fable “The Bundle of Sticks,” which demonstrates that from unity comes strength.
Gallery label from Rough Cut: Design Takes a Sharp Edge, November 26, 2008–October 12, 2009.
