Ballet-inspired double skyscraper design tricks the eye

The Bond Tower will transform the Albanian capital Tirana’s skyline with two connected buildings that appear to warp and lean into one another.

In Albania’s capital Tirana, where a spate of new towers will soon transform the skyline, architects have revealed plans for a new double skyscraper that will bend elegantly like a ballet dancer’s plié, or a lover leaning in for a kiss. These were two of the visual cues for Bond Tower, a 50-story residential building and hotel that seems to trick the eye. Designed by Portuguese architecture firm OODA, the skyscraper will feature two connected structures that gently separate before rejoining one other, giving it a warped effect. Residents will stay on one side and hotel guests on the other, with office space and retail mixed in on several of the floors. The rolling mountains surrounding the city will be visible in the negative space between the buildings, explained Diogo Brito, a partner at OODA. Located on the corner of a major avenue, the silhouette of Bond Tower shifts depending on which direction it’s approached from, he added. “We found this idea of having this dance between these two volumes… like a gentle encounter on the corner,” Brito said in a phone interview. “It is very important to us to have this equilibrium — this balanced the beauty of form and shape.” The architectural team designed the shape using multiple visual references, including the “grace” of a ballet dancer’s movement and the romantic gesture of Gustav Klimt’s famous 1908 painting “The Kiss.”