A mind-bending "Flex Tower" entry from the Living Cities competition

Flex your perspective for "Flex Tower", a proposal by Rome-based architect Paolo Venturella that he submitted to Metropolis magazine's Living Cities Design Competition we previously featured.

The competition had architects and engineers design a 40-story adaptable vertical housing tower in response to the reality of NYC's growing population, changing demographics, and shrinking urban spaces. In NYC alone, demographers predict The Big Apple's population will increase up to a million more residents by 2040.

Read on for more about Flex Tower.

Project description:

"2040. Population in New York City grows over and over. Inhabitants are more than expected and an original innovative typology appears in the city. Even if carbon emission has to reduce, the use of energy increases. High rise is the only answer. A solution combining housing and energy systems for a sustainable   living starts to be built in various parts of the city."

"In order to avoid an uncontrolled invasion of photovoltaic panels all over the city, the new typology perfectly combines the need of the moment. Since photovoltaic panels need a tilted surface oriented to the sun, this typology tilts and rotates itself. At the ground level the building respects the Manhattan’s grid   while in a higher level the shape rotates facing the sun allowing panels to displace correctly."

"The “FlexTower” combines the rotation and the flex in an appropriate 30 degrees angle facing the sun.  The façade works at the same time as structure and as performative skin. The structure is a unique steel frame all exterior the building. This allows to realize the very original shape challenging gravity and also to create an interior space   completely free from structural elements."

"The skin is designed so to create a unique envelope, an intelligent system made by different modules. At the top the most is made in photovoltaic and looks denser  while at the bottom photovoltaic evanesces and becomes less dense.

Thanks to the 'Flex Tower' the aspect of the city mutates. The classic skyline historically grown up as the extrusion of the plot converts to a new direction.  New Yorkers find their own space and a sustainable lifestyle."

Project credits:

Architect: Paolo Venturella
Design Team: Cosimo Scotucci, SolarShapeSystem 
City: New York City 
Year: 2014 
Type: competition

Images courtesy of Paolo Venturella.

Find more Living Cities entries here.

Click the thumbnails below for more images.