Stacking Innovation by the Caspian Sea

The population of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, has rapidly increased in the past decade. The resulting growth in urban activity has transformed the city into the Caspian Sea region’s hub, with new high-rise buildings and lively cultural centers creating a unique, well-balanced, and organically blended futuristic composition. The recently-topped-out 555-foot-tall Ministry of Taxation (MOT) tower has revitalized the skyline of Baku. It features five twisted stacked cubes that are independently cantilevered from a circular central core. Each cube holds five office floors and a column-free green roof terrace providing a distinct separation from the next cube above. Each floor plan is rotated 1.2 degrees with respect to the floor below, resulting in an astonishing 40 degrees twist overall from bottom to top (Figure 1). …