Dubai is an extravagant city, famous to be both modern and luxurious. By 2020, the city’s dramatic skyline is to have a particularly unique addition, called the Dynamic Tower of Dubai, which will be the first shape-shifting skyscraper in history.

Israeli-Italian architect David Fisher of Dynamic Architecture was inspired for the project after visiting Manhattan’s Olympic Tower. He thought to himself, “Why don’t we rotate the entire floor? That way, everybody can see both the East River and the Hudson River.” He explains, “That is how I got inspired to create the building that changes its shape continuously.”

Fisher’s architectural style highlights the natural elements and how buildings can change along with them. As explained on the Dynamic Architecture website, “The motionless state of today’s houses does not reflect people’s actual lives, where everything is constantly changing and moving very fast…Buildings should be able to move following the sun or the wind, and adjust to their tenants’ life and mood.” Thus, the concept of a rotating tower that offers people sea, desert and city views in one go. This way, people can rise with the sun and can shift their space according to their moods and time of day.

Architectural innovations are woven into the creation of the tower, as it will be the first to change shape, be built in a preset way and be quite sustainable by design. Prefabrication is especially unique for a structure this size and is estimated by Fisher to result in a cost savings of at least 20%. The website states, “The entire building, aside from the concrete core, is made of prefabricated units which arrive to the construction site completely finished, including flooring, water piping, air conditioning and all finishes. These units, made of steel, aluminum, carbon fibre and other high quality modern materials, are installed “mechanically” on site, offering luxury finishing, very fast construction time, usage of a limited number of workers, thus reducing site risks and enabling cost savings.” It continues to state, “The building, made of single separate floors, is structurally sound and flexible at the same time, being of very high seismic resistance.” In terms of sustainability, the website states “..it becomes also a ‘power station’ producing green energy for the city.” The building will utilize reportedly as many as 79 wind turbines as well as solar that will make it a self-powered building.

So the tower will not only be the first to change shape, but also the first prefabricated skyscraper and first self-powered building.

The Dynamic Tower will reach 1,375 feet tall. It will be comprised 80 floors, each of which will be able to rotate independently, dedicated to private residential apartments as well as offices and a luxury hotel.

Dynamic Architecture announced that the project will be completed by 2020.