What type of building is Calatrava's Turning Torso in Malmö?

Calatrava’s Turning Torso in Malmö is a residential skyscraper. Completed in 2005, it contains apartments arranged within a dramatic tower that twists upward beside the Öresund Strait.

The design grew from Calatrava’s earlier sculpture, Twisting Torso, which depicted a human body turning around its spine. The completed building translates that movement into nine rotating sections, producing its distinctive spiral form and neo-futurist appearance.

Turning Torso has 54 floors and rises about 190 metres. It was developed and owned by HSB, a Swedish cooperative housing organization, and became a landmark of Malmö’s Western Harbour district. Although it is primarily residential, the building also includes office and meeting spaces, which can cause confusion in simplified descriptions.

Another common mix-up is assuming the tower is in Copenhagen because it overlooks the Øresund region. It is in Malmö, Sweden, on the Swedish side of the strait. The tower was the Nordic region’s tallest building until Karlatornet in Gothenburg surpassed it in 2022.