The Twisted Tower

Skyscrapers usually start off bulky at ground level and become slim as they rise. Vancouver House, a twisting condo tower by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, does the opposite. The lower floors of the 59-story building, set to open in 2019, will squeeze into a narrow triangular lot constrained by highway off-ramps and an adjacent park. Once the tower has cleared the surrounding cityscape, it will curve outward, blooming into larger penthouse floors. The Westbank-developed Vancouver high-rise just won the World Architecture Festival’s Future Project of the Year award; judges called it a “delightful” use of a “typically abandoned public space.”

–Julie Shapiro

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