News: Turning Timepiece Building to break ground thanks to Rotherham specialist

The world's first turning "Timepiece" building, 55ºTime Dubai, is to break ground in the City of Arabia, Dubai with the official launch of the tower scheduled for January 2009. Combining sophisticated design with advanced, solar-powered rotation technology, 55ºTime Dubai has already won the CNBC Arabia Best High Rise architecture award for the design by British architect Glenn Howells. World-renowned rotation specialist Nick Cooper of Bennett Associates in Rotherham is the project patron and developer of the internationally patented rotation concepts that will turn the building. Driven by solar power, the whole structure will rotate at just one centimetre per minute allowing occupants to enjoy a panoramic 360º view over the course of a week. Recognised for his work on such projects as the sub-sea drilling equipment for the Channel Tunnel, the Falkirk Wheel and, most recently, his air-wing on the world's largest passenger aircraft the luxury A380 Airbus, Cooper says 55ºTime Dubai posed new challenges. "We had to design a machine that was energy efficient, with precision engineering in mind, but also make sure that it would be serviceable to move the building for the life of the superstructure. "The movement of the machine is to complement the tower's elegant look, with everything designed to balance and mathematically fit. The patented mechanism is also adaptable to carry taller buildings in line with other Timepiece projects being designed globally."
Bennett Associates website

55 Time Dubai website
Rotherham