Quite inspiring, I especially love the floodlights and nighttime illumination. But from an aerial perspective I still think it looks like a giant toilet bowl, as I mentioned before (last paragraph). I suspect it will grow on me though since I drive past it almost weekly.

The stadium at Green Point and supporting infrastructure for 2010 is the single biggest capital project Cape Town has ever undertaken.

More reading: Green Point Stadium on Wikipedia

It uses nine five-story cubes that twist as it rises; the top-most segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor. One reason for the building of Turning Torso was to reestablish a recognizable skyline for Malmö since the removal of the Kockums Crane in 2002.

(Photos above by Meltingfire, mr_reynolds, Ndesh and paralecitam. See more on Flickr.)

One of Santiago's other equally impressive designs, the Chicago Spire supertall skyscraper, will become North America's tallest structure and the world's tallest all residential building when completed in 2010.

I've now discovered that I came across two other Santiago structures (that I'm aware of) while backpacking around Western Europe: Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences) in Valencia, and the Puente del Alamillo (Alamillo Bridge) in Seville, Spain. Really photogenic architecture.

I wouldn't say no to any of these buildings replacing the Athlone Power Station that dominates Cape Town's outer skyline - the future of which remains uncertain. Maybe something to complement the Athlone stadium and, err, the rest of the Cape Flats (aka. "apartheid's dumping ground"). Just imagine the view!

Ah, and to balance out the Green Point Stadium currently under construction - of which I'm not a fan. Cape Town's own giant toilet bowl. Or maybe it should be nicknamed "The Ashtray", to fit in with the The Pepper Pots and Table Mountain theme. Or is that the "Tampon Towers". Hmmm... then that would make the stadium the... nah, nevermind.

Photos are © City of Cape Town (Source)

Also via k10k.net: Competition entry Architectural Designs of the National Stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games... wow.

Just found myself at a website where they feature the Worlds Tallest Buildings in pixel diagram formats. Although they're not that up-to-date, one of Cape Town's tallest buildings is definately not Golden Acre!!