The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has chosen the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden as the winner of the 2015 10 Year Award. This award recognizes the 54-storey skyscraper’s contribution to Malmö’s redeveloped Western Harbour over the last 10 years. Turning Torso was designed by Spanish architect, engineer, and artist, Santiago Calatrava and completed in 2005.

Turning Torso, image by Barbara Burg + Oliver Schuh, Palladium Photodesign, www.palladium.de

The Chicago-based CTBUH is the non-profit that established the internationally recognized standards for measuring the heights of tall buildings around the world. The 10 Year Award considers projects that have been operational for a decade, while evaluating their success across a wide variety of categories including environmental, engineering performance, vertical transport, and iconography. Turning Torso will be honoured along with all CTBUH Awards winners and finalists at the 14th Annual Awards Symposium at the Illinois Institute of Technology on November 12th, 2015. 

The base of the spine of Turning Torso, image by Barbara Burg + Oliver Schuh, Palladium Photodesign, www.palladium.de

At 190 metres, Turning Torso remains the tallest building in Scandinavia. This twisting skyscraper was the first of its kind, and rotates 1.6 degrees on each floor to achieve a 90-degree rotation along its full height. The tower is divided into nine visually distinct volumes, with pentagonal concrete floor plates supported by an internal concrete core and an external steel spine. The tower’s unique form was inspired by Calatrava's earlier marble sculpture of the same name and developed into a mixed-use architectural project for exhibition during the European Housing Expo 2001.

Today the Turning Torso is divided into 147 residential units above 10 office floors, with meeting facilities on the top two levels. It remains a distinctive landmark on Malmö’s skyline and defines the view from neighbouring Copenhagen. The CTBUH 10 Year Award is the latest honour for a tower which has also won the 2006 SBI Silver Beam Award, the 2005 MIPIM Award, and the fib 2006 Award for Outstanding Concrete Structures.