List of hyperboloid structures
This page is a list of hyperboloid structures. These were first applied in architecture by Russian engineer Vladimir Shukhov. Shukhov built his first example as a water tower for the 1896 All-Russian Exposition. Subsequently, more have been designed by other architects, including Le Corbusier, Antoni Gaudí, Eduardo Torroja, Oscar Niemeyer and Ieoh Ming Pei.
The shapes are doubly ruled surfaces, which can be classed as:
- Hyperbolic paraboloids, such as saddle roofs
- Hyperboloid of one sheet, such as cooling towers
Notable projects
| Structure | Image | Date completed | Location | Country | Function | Architect | Notes |
| Shukhov Tower in Polibino | 1896 | Polibino | Hyperboloid water tower | Vladimir Shukhov | The world's first hyperboloid structure featured at the 1896 All-Russian Exposition in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. | ||
| Adziogol Lighthouse | 1911 | Kherson | Hyperboloid lighthouse tower | Vladimir Shukhov | Illustrates a hyperboloid lattice. | ||
| Stanislav Range Front Light | 1911 | Kherson | Hyperboloid lighthouse tower | Vladimir Shukhov | |||
| Church of Colònia Güell | 1915 | Santa Coloma de Cervelló | Hyperboloid building cathedral vaults | Antoni Gaudí | An unfinished building with hyperbolic paraboloid vaults. | ||
| Shukhov Tower | 1922 | Moscow | Hyperboloid broadcast tower | Vladimir Shukhov | Unless the international campaign can save it, the 1922 Shukhov Tower is under current threat of demolition. | ||
| Shukhov tower on the Oka River | 1929 | Nizhny Novgorod | Hyperboloid electricity pylon towers | Vladimir Shukhov | The Shukhov Tower on the Oka River is the world's only diagrid hyperboloid electricity pylon transmission tower. In 2009 one tower was illegally taken down to re-sell the metal. | ||
| Dorton Arena | 1952 | Raleigh, North Carolina | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on arena | Maciej Nowicki | |||
| Fedala Reservoir | 1957 | Mohammedia | Hyperboloid water tower | Eduardo Torroja | |||
| Ochsenkopf TV Tower | 1958 | Ochsenkopf | Hyperboloid broadcast tower | A 163 meter 535 ft tall radio and TV tower of reinforced concrete. | |||
| Philips Pavilion | 1958 | Brussels, Belgium | A cluster of nine hyperbolic paraboloid concrete roofs | Le Corbusier | Commissioned by the Netherlands electronics company Philips, the pavilion at the World's Fair Expo '58 in Brussels was designed by Le Corbusier to house a multimedia spectacle that celebrated postwar technological progress. | ||
| Pylons of Cádiz | 1960 | Cádiz | Hyperboloid electricity pylon towers | Alberto Toscano, Italian | The Pylons of Cádiz,, are two tall electricity pylon supporting powerlines over the bay of Cádiz, Spain. | ||
| Mürwik Wasserturm | 1961 | Flensburg | Hyperboloid water tower | ||||
| Warszawa Ochota railway station | 1962 | Warsaw | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on train station | ||||
| Church Army Chapel, Blackheath | 1963 | Blackheath, south east London | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on church | E.T. Spashett | |||
| Kobe Port Tower | 1963 | Kōbe | Hyperboloid observation tower | Nikken Sekkei Company | |||
| Saint Louis Science Center's James S. McDonnell Planetarium | 1963 | St. Louis, Missouri | Hyperboloid building museum planetarium | Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum | |||
| Möglingen Wasserturm | 1965 | Ludwigsburg | Hyperboloid water tower | R. Kessler | |||
| Święty Krzyż TV Tower | 1966 | Łysa Góra | Hyperboloid broadcast tower | ||||
| Newcastle International Airport air traffic control tower | 1967 | Newcastle upon Tyne | Hyperboloid observation tower | ||||
| Cockfosters Water Tower | 1968 | London | Hyperboloid water tower | Edmund C. Percey of Scherrer and Hicks and J.W. Milne | Cockfosters Water Tower is in Cockfosters Road, north London, on the edge of Trent Park. | ||
| Ještěd Tower | 1968 | Liberec | Hyperboloid broadcast tower | Karel Hubáček | |||
| Wrexham Swimming Baths, now the Wrexham Waterworld Leisure and Activity Centre | 1969 | Wrexham, Wales | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on indoor swimming pool | F.D. Williamson associates of Bridgend | |||
| Cathedral of Brasília | 1970 | Brasília | Hyperboloid building cathedral | Oscar Niemeyer | |||
| Scandinavium | 1971 | Gothenburg | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on arena | Poul Hultberg, for Nils Olsson's Gothenburg firm | |||
| Ciechanów Water Tower | 1972 | Ciechanów | Hyperboloid water tower | Jan Bogusławski, Jerzy Michał Bogusławski | A toroidal water tower tank on a doubly ruled hyperboloid structure. | ||
| Gettysburg National Tower | 1974-2000 | Gettysburg, Pennsylvania | Hyperboloid observation tower | Joel H. Rosenblatt | Demolished in 2000. | ||
| :de:BIZ-Turm of the Bank for International Settlements | 1977 | Basel | Hyperboloid skyscraper tower | Martin Burckhardt | Tower for the untouchables. | ||
| Sydney Tower | 1981 | Sydney | Hyperboloid observation tower | Donald Crone, Australian | |||
| Le Havre's House of Culture, a.k.a. :fr:Le Volcan | 1982 | Le Havre | Hyperboloid building concert hall | Oscar Niemeyer, Brazilian | |||
| Roy Thomson Hall | 1982 | Toronto | Hyperboloid building concert hall | Arthur Erickson and Mathers and Haldenby, Canadian | |||
| Scotiabank Saddledome | 1983 | Calgary | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on indoor arena | Graham McCourt Architects | |||
| THTR-300 thorium nuclear reactor cooling tower | 1983 | Hamm-Uentrop | Hyperboloid cooling tower | Schlaich Bergermann & Partner | The THTR-300 cable-net dry cooling tower for the now decommissioned thorium high-temperature nuclear reactor. | ||
| Canada Place | 1985 | Vancouver, British Columbia | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roofs in series with masts and fabric resembling sails | Zeidler Roberts Partnership in joint venture with Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects + Planners. | Canada Place houses the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel, Vancouver's World Trade Centre, the virtual flight ride FlyOver Canada, and is the main cruise ship terminal for the region. | ||
| Tractricious | 1988 | Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois | Hyperboloid public art sculpture | Robert R. Wilson | The Tractricious sculpture in front of Fermilab's Illinois Accelerator Research Center, Illinois, designed by Robert R. Wilson who derived the name Tractricious from tracktrix, a curve such that any tangent segment from the tangent point on the curve to the curve's asymptote have constant length, a concept first introduced by Claude Perrault in 1670. | ||
| Corporation Street Bridge | 1999 | Manchester | Hyperboloid building enclosed walkway | Hodder + Partners | |||
| Killesberg Tower | 2001 | Stuttgart | Hyperboloid observation tower | Jörg Schlaich and Schlaich Bergermann Partner | Originally planned for the 1993 World Horticultural Exposition, it was only erected in 2001. | ||
| Aussichtsturm Schlossberg a.k.a. Castle Hill Tower | 2002 | Freiburg im Breisgau | Hyperboloid observation tower | Hubert Horbach, Freiburg | |||
| Radio Mast at Krupskoi Street | 2003 | Perm | Hyperboloid broadcast tower | A 180 meter 591 ft tall radio and TV steel lattice tower | |||
| Messe Wien Turm / Messeturm | 2004 | Vienna | Hyperboloid public art sculpture decorative illuminated tower landmark | Gustav Peichl, Rudolf F. Weber, Katharina Fröch, Christoph Lechner, Paul Katzberger, Gerhard Moßburger, Norbert Erlach | The largest trade fair in Austria and one of the most important economic factors of Vienna. | ||
| Barcelona–El Prat Airport air traffic control tower | 2005 | El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona | Hyperboloid observation tower | Ricardo Bofill, Spanish | |||
| :cs:Borůvka | 2005 | Chrudim | Hyperboloid observation tower | Martin Novák and Antonín Olšina | |||
| :de:TBZ-Turm | 2005 | Zürich | Hyperboloid observation tower | Daniel Roth, German | The winner of a 2003 competition had his tower built on the roof of the Zürich's Technical Vocational School. Initially accessible, the observation tower has been closed indefinitely due to student mischief. | ||
| Moscow Octod Tower | 2006 | Moscow | Hyperboloid broadcast tower | A 258 meter 846 ft tall radio and TV steel lattice tower | |||
| Aspire Tower a.k.a. "The Torch Doha" | 2007 | Doha | Hyperboloid skyscraper tower | Hadi Simaan and AREP and engineer Ove Arup and Partners | |||
| BMW Welt | 2007 | Munich | Hyperboloid building event venue and museum | Viennese professor Wolf D. Prix and architect firm Coop Himmelb au | |||
| Tornado Tower a.k.a. the "QIPCO Tower" | 2008 | Doha | Hyperboloid skyscraper tower | ||||
| :de:Lörmecke-Turm | 2008 | Warstein, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia | Hyperboloid observation tower | Joh.-Ulrich Blecke and Dr. Ing. Michael Maas | |||
| :cs:Slunečná | 2009 | Velké Pavlovice | Hyperboloid observation tower | Ing. Martin Novák in cooperation with Antonín Olšina | |||
| Canton Tower a.k.a. Guangzhou Tower | 2010 | Guangzhou | Hyperboloid skyscraper tower | Dutch architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit of Information Based Architecture, together with Arup, the international design, engineering and business consulting firm headquartered in London | The Canton Tower is in the Haizhu District of the city of Guangzhou, in Guangdong, China. | ||
| Ferrari World Abu Dhabi | 2010 | Yas Island in Abu Dhabi | Hyperboloid building | the largest space frame structure ever built | |||
| :de:Jübergturm | 2010 | :de:Jüberg, Hemer, Märkischer Kreis, Arnsberg, North Rhine-Westphalia | Hyperboloid observation tower | Beat Müller and Katharina Schewe, Swiss + Birk and Heilmeyer, Stuttgart | The first wooden hyperboloid tower structurally supported only by the outer wood framework. | ||
| Khan Shatyry Entertainment Center | 2010 | Khan Shatyr, Astana | Hyperboloid superstructure | Norman Foster of Foster and Partners | The highest tensile structure in the world. | ||
| Lee Valley VeloPark a.k.a. London VeloPark | 2011 | Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, East London | Hyperbolic paraboloid saddle roof on cycling centre arena | Hopkins Architects, Grant Associates | |||
| Mae West | 2011 | Munich | Hyperboloid public art sculpture | Rita McBride | |||
| San Clan | 2012 | Tankwa Karoo National Park | Hyperboloid public art sculpture tower | A temporary tower and ephemeral effigy constructed to intentionally burn in celebration at AfrikaBurn 2012, a Burning Man regional event. | |||
| Tachov Vysoká | 2014 | Tachov | Hyperboloid observation tower | Hysek architectural studio | |||
| Warsaw Spire | 2016 | Warsaw | Hyperboloid skyscraper tower | Jaspers-Eyers Architects and PROJEKT Polsko-Belgijska Pracownia Architektury | The Warsaw Spire is a complex of Neomodern office buildings in Warsaw, Poland. | ||
| Camp Adventure | 2018 | Gisselfeld Klosters forests, between Haslev and Næstved, | Hyperboloid observation tower | EFFEKT Architects | 45m spiral walkway. | ||
| Les Essarts-le-Roi Château d'Eau | Les Essarts-le-Roi, Yvelines | Hyperboloid water tower | |||||
| Gen Coel Building | Heerlerheide, Heerlen | Hyperboloid building public library, shopping, and community centre | Utilizes geothermal mine water heating and cooling. See also: :nl:Aardwarmte#Aardwarmte_uit_mijngangen. | ||||
| Tempo, a.k.a. Samspel | Husnes | Hyperboloid public art sculpture | LEADinc | Commissioned by Hydro Husnes, formerly Sør-Norge Aluminium AS. | |||
| Sagrada Família | Barcelona | Hyperboloid building cathedral vaults and windows | Antoni Gaudí | Under construction since 1882 with an estimated completion in 2026. | |||
| Crystal Island | Moscow | Hyperboloid superstructure | Norman Foster of Foster and Partners | Designed but never built. In 2009, due to the global economic crisis, financial backing for the project was lost, and construction of the project was postponed. | |||
| Vortex Tower | London | Hyperboloid skyscraper tower | Ken Shuttleworth | Designed in 2012 but never built. |