Architecture, another topic way outside my areas of expertise. But it doesn’t take deep understanding of the field to note the trends in Dubai, City of Skyscrapers.

The newest has come on line, and whatever its official name (which is in flux), it certainly will be known as the “twisted tower”.

Why that name?

Because the 75-story building looks as if a giant reached down from the heavens, grasped the top of the building — and gave it clockwise twist.

The side of the building that faces north, at ground level, faces east at the top, and so on around the building. The engineering problems must have been significant — all those tweaked girders!

The trend throughout the world, which is seen especially in Dubai, epicenter for big buildings in the 21st century, is for quirky architecture. Because they can-can-can.

Look around New York, and the big stuff is pretty straightforward. Bigger at the bottom, smaller at the top. I suppose architects of the previous century might have been more concerned about making sure the buildings were structurally sound and outwardly rational, even to laymen.

In Dubai? Things are getting goofy.  Some of it is horizontal, like the Palm and the World developments, out in the Gulf — shaped like a palm tree and a map of the Earth.

Quirks help a tower stand out. The twisted tower would have been just another inexplicably big place, in Dubai, had it not been weird-looking. And now they can charge, and apparently can get, one-year rents in the $550,000 range for a one-bedroom apartment.

The average in Dubai is probably still (the market is expanding like a balloon) perhaps $60,000 for a typical tower one-bedroom. (The market still being so saturated.)

In this story in The National, the chairman of the group that built the place cuts to the chase about exceptionalism being key.

“If you want to do a project in Dubai it has to be different,” he said. “We wanted to do something different, we wanted to be recognized.”

Mission accomplished.

“We thought it would be the talk of the town, and during the past few years, although it’s still not competed, it has been the talk of the town.”

The down side to funky architecture often is the demise in functionality that accompanies it. In this story, one of The National’s reporters remarks on how unusual it is to be inside, and if you follow the photo gallery you can see how apartments are not exactly modular.

(Overall, I would rather live in a functional place … and look at an interesting place.)

The twisted tower will be part of a documentary on tall buildings being shot by a Dubai-based firm.

Other freakish towers in Dubai? The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building; and the Burj Al Arab, which is shaped like a billowing sail.

For more looks at the twisted tower … check the photo gallery at The National’s website.