Architecture Takes a New Turn: “The Big Bend” Building Concept is Quite Fantastic (Videos)

The U-shaped building in the image above is not from a scene in a science fiction movie or book.

It is an architecture firm’s answer for New York City condo developers.

Ioannis Oikonomou, architect and founder of Oiio Studio, suggests that developers go “long instead of tall” in Manhattan.

Oiio Studio recently released their design for this building – appropriately named “The Big Bend”. The structure would be skinny and curved, running 4,000-feet-long on Billionaire’s Row.

“If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan,” Oiio Studio says on its website. “The longest building in the world.”

You are probably wondering how elevators would work in this kind of building, and thankfully, Arch Daily has the answer:

To allow for circulation around the bend, Oiio envisions using the latest in elevator technologies, Thyssen Krupp’s MULTI system, which allows elevators to travel independently both vertically and horizontally through shaft loops within a building.

Here’s a video that shows how such an elevator system would work:

This image shows what the structure would look like straddling Billionaire’s Row on 57th Street.

The following video provides more details on the ambitious design.