Turn to The Future: A 360-Degree Rotating Apartment Building


Urbanization has become a big trend in the world. Many cities are bursting out or are about to. Instead of access to good education or medical care, the biggest class conflict for coming generations will be who has the best view.

Turn+To+THe+Future-1Turn+To+THe+Future-2Buildings will become higher and more people who live in the lower floors of buildings will get their view blocked.

In the future, people with very high incomes will own the top floors and people with middle to lower income will only have an imperfect view from their living spaces.

A durable solution for this problem could be the ‘Turn to The Future’.

What is it?

27ef868543abf9c4e16439c1aeb8f0bdTurn to The Future is a spiral rotating building concept of the future developed by industrial designer Shin Kuo at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University that should provide citizens sustainability. Besides, it literally gives new perspective to the urban architecture in the future and gives a chance to connect with the environment.

How does it work? The Turn to The Future includes a system that allows each unit to rotate on a spiral track at predetermined times. Due to this, all the apartments in the building are equivalent.




Because of the design, each resident can share a 360-degree view of the city from their building. This makes them enjoy the high quality of their living spaces.

Kuo plans to realize this building by applying 3D printing to build the units, featuring a combination of aluminum, steel, smart glass and solar panels. But he also utilizes lighter materials into the framework such as carbon fiber, bendable concrete and artificial bone.

Why is it cool?

For now, the concept of Kuo is no more than an idea. But wouldn’t it be amazing to see and use a rotating tower like this?

I think this idea would be fantastic, because the Turn to The Future gives people a chance to enjoy the high quality of living spaces and share the equal view of their city and landscape.

Furthermore, this concept will change the way that citizens interact with their environment. Turn to The Future will foster new awareness of the ground, sky, light, gravity and shadow and offers a new lifestyle. It’s an innovative project that will change the definition of the history of building.

Also, the idea of the Turn to The Future contains a fair system and responds to the need for more equality and sharing, rather than more or better. Particularly the individualization has promoted this.

Finally, people like to get astonished. That’s why this signal suits well to the Experience Economy.

In the future, signals like the Turn to The Future make the desire to live together in a new and better way come true.