Form follows function. This principle has shaped modern high-rise architecture.
Logic, consistency and imagination have allowed people to push beyond their limits and reach for the sky. And allowed us to create Plonq Plus.
Architecture inspired Plonq to develop a new product, and we want to share that inspiration with you.
We have selected eight of the world's most spectacular tall buildings to inspire you to reach just as high.
The design of Plonq Plus was inspired by Steinway Tower. The building stands near New York's Central Park, at 111 West 57th Street in Manhattan.
Steinway Tower is not exceptionally tall, but it is the world's most slender structure: at 435 metres high, its width-to-height ratio is just 1:24.
The building was designed by SHoP Architects. Its bronze and terracotta façade references Art Deco. The blade-like form echoes the New York towers built in the early 20th century.
The 82-storey skyscraper accommodates apartments, leisure facilities and retail space. It also incorporates the heritage-listed Steinway Hall, the famous concert venue where Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky performed for an American audience in 1891.
At 413 metres, Al Hamra Business Tower is Kuwait's tallest sculpted skyscraper. Located in the heart of Kuwait City, the country's business hub, it offers views of the coastline.
Al Hamra is an 80-storey tower wrapped in folds of glass and steel. This design reflects sunlight and helps maintain a comfortable temperature inside.
The tower was designed by SOM. Its combination of Constructivist and Eastern features makes it a striking example of architectural styles brought together.
Inside Al Hamra are corporate offices, luxury boutiques, numerous restaurants and observation decks overlooking the Persian Gulf.
The Comcast Center, headquarters of the major American media company Comcast, became Philadelphia's second-tallest skyscraper after the Comcast Technology Center, and the 23rd-tallest building in the United States.
The tower was designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects. The 58-storey building stands 296.7 metres tall.
The Comcast Center became the first shared workplace for the staff of a company with a history of more than 60 years. According to its engineers, the architecture symbolises the constantly changing dynamics of the media industry: the building is made almost entirely of transparent glass, revealing the activity inside.
The centre, which houses thousands of employees, is connected to the Comcast Technology Center and Suburban Station by a pedestrian passage at concourse level.
Rising 384 metres above Riyadh, PIF Tower is one of five landmark buildings that define Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Financial District.
PIF Tower was designed by HOK in collaboration with Omrania & Associates. The tower's transparency, expressing timelessness and openness, recalls the crystals found along wadis in the Saudi Arabian desert. The architects intended PIF Tower to symbolise the dawn of a new era of financial leadership in the Saudi capital.
HOK aimed to achieve LEED Gold certification in recognition of the team's sustainable construction work. With good reason: the building has a multicomponent solar-control system, while a rooftop photovoltaic installation generates electricity.
Another of the world's tallest and most spectacular towers stands in Seoul. The famous Lotte World Seoul Sky is a 555-metre building with 123 storeys.
Construction began in 2010 and was completed just six years later. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), the mirrored, needle-like tower became South Korea's tallest building, one of Seoul's major landmarks and a symbol of the country's international standing.
The tower is part of the Lotte Plaza architectural complex, which brings together public and entertainment spaces, dining destinations and shopping malls. At 500 metres above ground, visitors can also access an observation deck for a bird's-eye view of the city and the permanent “Pride of Korea” exhibition.
Zifeng Tower, also known as the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center, is a mixed-use, 89-storey complex in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.
The tower was designed by SOM. The intricate, stepped form of the 450-metre building was inspired by the local landscape: the tower is arranged to provide views of the nearby mountains, lake and historic buildings of Nanjing from every viewing point. The structures surrounding its central core evoke “dancing dragons”, a common motif in Chinese painting and graphic art.
Zifeng Tower contains offices, an InterContinental hotel, retail space and underground parking. Landscaped glass atriums are distributed throughout the building, with restaurants and an observation deck at the top.
Dabaihui Plaza is one of the must-see landmarks in Shenzhen's central Futian district. The tower reaches 380 metres. It is China's first building where visitors can travel between all 70 floors without transfers, moving freely between its sections.
The tower was created by an international team from KPF, SOM, Callison and Leigh & Orange. Construction took nine years. The building stands out for its complex, streamlined exterior, interior design and the earthquake-resistant technology integrated into its architecture and engineering.
The tower connects to six nearby metro lines, an enormous 300,000-square-metre coworking space, and public, retail and office areas.
The mixed-use Neva Towers complex is Renaissance Development's flagship project. According to the international property agency Savills, Neva Towers was the most successful project in Moscow's premium property market in 2014.
Three leading international practices worked on the towers: SPEECH, HOK and FXFOWLE. The Neva Towers complex consists of a 345-metre, 79-storey residential tower and a 302-metre, 68-storey tower with offices occupying the first 28 floors.
Neva Towers offers unusually extensive green spaces for a city-centre development, including a private park with an outdoor swimming pool for apartment owners. It became the first residential project in Russia to receive LEED Gold certification.
