Absolute Towers, Mississauga, Canada

Imposing, statuesque and endowed with an undulating sequence of curves, it's no surprise that the first of MAD Architects' mesmerising Absolute Towers has been nicknamed 'Marilyn Monroe' by smitten locals.

'Marilyn' is part of the Absolute Condos project in Canada's sixth largest city, Mississauga, where Beijing-based MAD saw fit to embrace not only a global trend for curvaceous skyscrapers but for satellite developments to express the town's own individuality.

VOLUPTUOUS TOWER DESIGN

Built by Ontario builders Fernbrook Homes in collaboration with Toronto developer Cityzen Development Group, Absolute Condos is a five-tower glass, concrete and steel luxury condominium complex in the heart of Mississauga, opposite the 360-store Square One shopping mall. The residential towers themselves fan out from a 30,000ft² private recreation centre.

The Absolute Condos development is on the north-east corner of the crossroads of Hurontario Street and Burnhamthope Road, a gateway to the Mississauga town centre. This location enables MAD Architects' design for the final two towers to directly address visitors and others travelling into the city.

Principals of MAD, Ma Yansong, Yosuke Hayano and Dang Qun, said in a statement that Mississauga, a fast-developing suburb in orbit around Canada's largest city Toronto, sought a new, unique identity.

"Our design forsakes the simplification principle of modernism. In fact, it expresses a higher level of complexity and diversity of modern society through multiple approaches. In the meantime, it caters to [ambiguous] social needs at multiple levels," they said.

Just two years after being founded, MAD Architects won first prize in an international competition in 2006 to design phase 4 of the sculpture-like construction. Phase 4 is 56 stories or 170m high making for a total 45,000m² of floor space, dubbed Absolute World 1.

ABSOLUTE WORLD 2

The design was so admired that the studio was commissioned to design a sister building, Absolute World 2, next door, which is due for completion in 2009. Absolute World 2 or phase 5, the fifth tower of the project, will incorporate 50 storeys and be 150m high boasting a total floor space of 40,000m².

However, unlike Absolute World 1, the second, more northern tower will be wider in the 'waist', not thinner, paunchy as opposed to hourglass in shape.

The three older towers are complementary but less curvaceous. The first Absolute apartment block features 850ft², two-bedroom apartments while the second, A², has 850ft² to 1,260ft² two-bedroom apartments, mostly with balconies.

Building three, the Club Tower, ranges from two-bedroom, 765ft² apartments with an additional 60ft² balcony to 1,250ft² three-bedroom-plus-den penthouses with an additional 92ft² of balcony.

"Modernism has a famous motto: 'A house is a machine for living in'. However, as the machines and the society constructed upon it have experienced dramatic changes, how should we understand today's architecture now?" MAD said.

"What message should the architecture convey if [a town] is distancing [itself] from the industrial age?"

ABSOLUTE TOWERS CONSTRUCTION

Construction started in 2007. Absolute World 1 offers five different floor plans for two-bedroom apartments 755ft² to 1,030ft² in size, all with large 155ft² to 280ft² balconies.

Absolute World 2 boasts six different types of residence, ranging from one-bedroom 580ft² to 610ft² apartments with 225ft² to 245ft² balconies to two bedroom-plus-den 975ft² apartments with 300ft² balconies.

The two towers, budgeted at a total $1.3bn, aim to manifest potential power while making a statement to the surrounding area and social context, according to MAD.

"In our design, the continuous balcony surrounds the whole building, eliminating the vertical lines used in traditional high rise architecture to emphasise the height," the architects said in a statement.

"The entire building rotates by different degrees at different levels, which corresponds with sceneries at different heights."

MAD said part of the idea was to evoke the city dwellers' desire for nature, exposing them to the sensuality of sunlight and wind. The curvy, wraparound balconies, accessible from all principal rooms, offer maximum light. Each tower is crowned with a residents-only terrace and lounge.

"Our design expresses the universal language of audacity, sensuality and romance. As the new landmark of the city of Mississauga, it will become the icon of the present landscape with all its twisting rhythms resembling the human body," they said.