MORE ABOUT: The Absolute Towers – Ontario, Canada

Building: Absolute Towers
Location: 70 Absolute Avenue, Mississauga, ON L4Z0A4, Canada
Architect: MAD ltd.
Principal design:Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano, Dang Qun
Associate Architects: BURKA Architects INC.
Structural Engineers: SIGMUND, SOUDACK & ASSOCIATES INC.
Mechanical Engineers: ECE Group
Electrical Engineers: ECE Group
Landscape Architects: NAK Design
Interior Designers: ESQAPE Design
Design Team: Shen Jun; Robert Groessinger; Florian Pucher; Yi Wenzhen; Hao Yi; Yao Mengyao; Zhao Fan; Liu Yuan; Zhao Wei; Li Kunjuan; Yu Kui; Max Lonnqvist; Eric Spencer

image courtesy MAD architects [1]

Typology: Residential Apartments
Tower A: 45,000 sqm, 56 stories/ 170 m
Tower B: 40,000 sqm, 50 stories/ 150 m
Status: Under construction (Estimated completion: 2011)

image courtesy MAD architects [1]

For the first time in a large international design competition, MAD Architectural Design Studio won the bid for designing a super-high-rise in Mississauga, Canada with the design of The Absolute Towers. “The tower captures our whole philosophy,” said Danny Salvatore, president of Fernbrook Homes and a partner in the new Absolute community, in an interview with The Cityzen. The Towers are currently under construction and are estimated to be complete in 2011. [4]

image courtesy designboom© [2]

The original design of the Absolute Towers consisted of only one tower, the southern tower, and because of the success of the design MAD architects decided to create another tower to complement the first. The south tower is known to the locals as the Marilyn Monroe for its curvy features as this tower is thinner in the middle section as compared to the northern tower of which is larger in the middle section. [4]

[1]

The following picture shows the direction and degree of rotation for each level of the southern tower:

[1]
Unlike many construction processes of which concrete is lifted with a crane, concrete is pumped to the top of the towers during the construction phase. [5]

[5]

[5]
The Absolute Towers, of glass, concrete, and steel, act as a gateway to the Mississauga city center. To help promote the citizens interest for nature and emphasize height, a continuous balcony surrounds the entire building at each floor which purges the vertical barriers we generally witness in high rise architecture. [3]

“Our design forsakes the simplification principle of modernism. In fact, it expresses a higher level of complexity and diversity of modern society through multiple approaches. In the meantime, it caters to (ambiguous) social needs at multiple levels.”
MAD  [4]

Case study by: Caleb Holobaugh
ARE320K Fall 2010

Sources:
[1] – Official MAD Ltd website
[2] – Designboom website
[3] – Konyk, C., & Rieselbach, A. (2007). Instability. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
[4] – MAD.exe Office (2008). MAD Dinner. New York: Actar.
[5] – Urban Toronto