Does your high-rise apartment or office tower look like a mobile phone? These ones do, and you can bet smartphone users inside them get REALLY good reception.
1. Telefónica Chile Building - Santiago, Chile
Image via: Celebrate Big
The Telefónica Chile Building (Torre Telefónica Chile) in Santiago was designed by architects Seismic A&E and while the firm doesn’t explicitly say so at their website, the structure was clearly intended to house a mobile telecommunications company - in this case, Telefónica Chile (known since 2009 as Movistar).
The 143 m (469 ft) tall tower’s design was an attempt to ape the appearance of state-of-the-art mid-1990s mobile phones…considering the building opened in December of 1995, we’d say the architects achieved their goal. It’s odd, however, that planners did not foresee the continuing evolution of mobile phone design through the Telefónica Chile Building‘s estimated lifespan and indeed, only a few short years after it opened the design was already looking quite dated.
2. Omniyat Properties iPad Building - Dubai, UAE
Image via: WIRED
Don’t let the name “iPad” fool you, this 23-story building concept from Omniyat Properties dates from 2007 and its design was intended to evoke Apple’s iPod MP3 player sitting atop a docking station. If the design doesn’t resemble an iPod upon first glance, keep in mind the edifice will lean back at a six degree angle.
Omniyat Properties suspended work on many of its planned building designs as the late-2000s world financial crisis bit into investment budgets, and the iPad was one of those to be put “on hold” until better days arrived. By 2010 the design had been re-named “The Pad” for obvious reasons and according to Omniyat Properties over 50 percent of payments required to re-start work on this and other outstanding projects had been nailed down.
3. Bic Camera Building - Tokyo, Japan
Image via: Panoramio/alicemarotta
The Bic Camera building in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district is one of about 40 Bic Camera stores in Japan, though it’s the only one that looks like a cell phone. The building’s facade is actually functional in a way, as the number buttons match the building’s floors and include a short description of what products may be found there.
Oddly for a building shaped like a cellular phone, the Bic Camera building in Ikebukuro does not specialize in mobile phone sales. Instead, this particular location predominantly sells computers, parts, peripheral devices and the like.
4. The Walkie-Talkie - 20 Fenchurch St., London, UK
Image via: Designboom
The recently completed, 37-story high-rise building at 20 Fenchurch Street in London, UK has been attracting attention for all the wrong reasons. Dubbed the “Walkie Talkie” after its resemblance to those two-way radio handsets, the building designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects displays vast expanses of curved glass which, under certain day-time conditions, focus sunlight in a manner that could be dangerous to people and possessions.
If you’ve ever considered the POV of an ant looking up at a kid with a magnifying glass, then walking (or parking) anywhere near 20 Fenchurch is a questionable proposition to say the least. After someone reported plastic parts on their Jaguar had partially melted after being exposed to the building’s reflected heat, a reporter sent to investigate beat a quick retreat when his hair began to catch on fire. That’s one way to dissuade the homeless, Mormons and pigeons.
5. Archpartners Concept Tower - Dubai, UAE
Image via: Eikongraphia
There’s not much info around concerning the above building concept from Archpartners other than it was intended to stoke interest in investors hoping to ride the growing wave of telecom-related infrastructure spending. If the coastal setting with abundant palms is any clue, the Leaning Tower of Telecommunications was yet one more entry in the much-cooled Dubai building frenzy.
6. SK Telecom Headquarters - Seoul, South Korea
Image via: Dan
The SK Telecom Headquarters building in Seoul, South Korea was designed for a telecom company and designed to look like a mobile phone, which makes perfect sense as long as SK Telecom maintains offices in the building and isn’t replaced some day by some anonymous insurance company. Kudos to Flicker user Dan for capturing the above inspiring image of SK Telecom’s T-Tower.
The 33-story T-Tower stands 148 meters (486 feet) tall, which puts it at only 68th place among other Seoul skyscrapers. If only they had straightened out the topmost bend in the planning stage. The T-Tower carries the clamshell flip-phone theme down to the ambient lighting constructed around the building’s base. The overall design should age well, as long as people keep buying bent mobile phones.
7. Jasmine International Tower - Bangkok, Thailand
Image via: PicPost Postjung
The 31-story Jasmine International Tower on Bangkok’s Chaengwatana Road was designed as an “intelligent office tower” attractive to the Southeast Asian nation’s growing telecommunications industry. Features of note include in-house wireless internet, a data centre, and of course the building’s sleek appearance likened by many to one of the latest smartphones.
Unlike the “Walkie Talkie” building at 20 Fenchurch Street in London, England, the outer walls of the Jasmine International Tower are not angled downward though they do describe a mild parabolic curve when viewed from above or below. Tenants parking in the outdoor lot need not fear, therefore, until they get their monthly bill.
8. Crazy John’s Phone Tower - Victoria, Australia
Image via: Daily Times
Working in an office tower shaped like a mobile phone is one thing, knowing the concept came from the mind of someone known as “Crazy John” is another. This overly realistic cell phone tower was the brainchild (or brainfart, if you like) of one “Crazy John” Ilhan, a fabulously rich Australian who built his fortune on the rapidly expanding telecom industry.
Ilhan’s outrageous tower was to soar 120 meters (almost 395 ft) into the sky overlooking Melbourne’s Southbank district. It might have actually come to pass if Ilhan had not suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack in October of 2007, after which his grandiose cell phone tower plans were thankfully shelved.
9. “Cell Phone Building” - Kunming, China
Image via: People.com.cn
One might call the previously depicted Bic Camera cell phone building in Tokyo many things but “inspirational”? Believe it or not, the visual concept must have impressed unnamed Chinese entrepreneurs so much, they commissioned a version for themselves.
One thing you can’t say about the orange building on Huancheng Road in Kunming, southwestern China, is that it’s not noticeable. It also doesn’t appear to be dedicated to exclusively selling mobile phones, though it is situated in a sprawling mixed-use commercial complex. One supposes you could always call and ask what they do there, though the reply just might be an angry “What do you THINK we do here?!”
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