Radical buildings could alter New York skyline forever

Sarcostyle: The new design adds an exciting twist to the familiar Manhattan high rise. Photo / Hayri Atak, Supplied

The Manhattan Skyline is a world treasure. Its 1930s skyscrapers, the Empire State and Chrysler buildings give it a silhouette from golden era USA.

However one architectural studio feels New York could do with a rethink. They've proposed a building whose fluid-warped walls and central cavity look as though they have landed on the Hudson, direct from the future.

The latest renderings from Istanbul's Hayri Atak Architectural Design Studio for a proposed high-rise building is unlike anything else on the island. Or anywhere else.

Sarcostyle: The 'ghost-like' tower has a single fluid face. Photo / Supplied, Hayri Atak

Describing the structure as a "transparent, ghostly stance in the city skyline", the tube-like walls fold through the central hole allowing onlookers to look straight through the "amorphous" building.

Although occupying the same footprint as a high-rise tower-block, curved sides and glass form the shape out of a single face. Named "Sarcostyle" it was inspired by the mathematical Mobius loop.

The Hayri Atak design adds a twist to the familiar skyline. Photo / Supplied, Hayri Atak

It is a daring design, even a future facing America might not be ready for. However, the Hayri Atak studio have a record of dreaming big when it comes to high-concept designs.

In 2019 they unveiled a design for a vertiginous hotel, carved into the 600 metre Preikestolen cliff in Norway. To add an extra rush of adrenaline to your morning swim, the concept featured a cantilevered glass bottomed pool – allowing guests to swim out into infinity over Lysefjorden.

Morning swim at the Cliff Concept Boutique Hotel. Photo / Supplied, Hayri Atak

However, Hayri Atak is just the latest in a long line of design houses with their eye on the New York skyline. Previous loopy designs include US architect Ioannis Oikonomou's 'Big Bend'. In 2017 the proposal for a U-shaped two-footed tower on Manhattan's Billionaire's Row, the design's drawings for a 1.2km loom calculate it would be "the longest building in the world".

Loopy: Skyscraper oiio would be the world's longest building. Photo / Oiio, Supplied

One space-age design that has makes the leap from the drawing board to reality this year is the 91-storey 111 West 57th Skyscraper by New York-based Shop Architects . At over 432 metres tall, it dwarfs the neighbouring Trump Tower by 230 metres.

The 111 West 57th Street building gains height on Billionaire's Row. Photo / Jim Henderson, CC

The 60 or so apartments inside the building are selling upwards of a dizzying $22 million each.