Plans for World's First Rotating Skyscraper Unveiled

Extravagant plans were unveiled yesterday for the world's first swirling skyscrapers, with each floor rotating up to once an hour to form an ever-changing profile on the skyline.

The first two towers are to be built in Dubai and Moscow in what the architect describes as a new era of dynamic architecture. David Fisher, who admits never having designed a skyscraper before, said: “My buildings are unique because they are the first ones to rotate — to be dynamic — every second.”

The rotating floors will be made of prefabricated units that spin around a concrete core. Most of the floors will be controlled from the architect's laptop, so that they are synchronised to make undulating architectural forms. Owners who buy an entire floor will be able to use voice activation controls to command it to rotate at will, so that they can pick their view.

Production of the prefabricated units is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks at a factory outside Bari, in Italy. Mr Fisher said that buyers should be able to move into the completed building in Dubai by the end of 2010. Details of the financing remain unclear because the developers are relying on pre-sales for at least part of the $700 million (£355 million) cost of building the 80-storey skyscraper.