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Gb-TOWERs | Structural Resilience

Can a skyscraper withstand a ballistic missile strike?

A question that occasionally surfaces in discussions about extreme structural resilience. Hopefully it remains purely theoretical — yet there is at least one real-world reference.

During the brief Iran–Israel conflict, a missile struck the Da Vinci Tower in Tel Aviv. The impact severed one of the reinforced-concrete load-bearing columns. Despite the damage, the building’s structural system absorbed the loss without triggering a critical failure.

Repairs were carried out relatively quickly, and the tower continues to operate normally.

The episode offers a stark reminder of something structural engineers have long understood: modern reinforced-concrete high-rise systems are designed with significant redundancy. Even severe local damage does not necessarily translate into structural collapse.

Extreme events test architecture in unexpected ways.
Sometimes the engineering quietly holds.

Principle #1. - Beauty without structure is decoration | Structure without beauty is oppression

Architecture is often divided into two camps: the aesthetic and the functional. One side chases visual impact. The other hides behind efficiency and regulations. But real architecture begins where these two forces stop fighting.

Beauty alone is fragile. It seduces for a moment, but without structure it collapses — visually or physically.
Structure alone can stand for decades. But without beauty, proportion, and light, it slowly drains the human spirit.
True balance is not compromise. It is integration. Every line must carry load. Every load must carry meaning. When structure becomes expressive, and beauty becomes rational, space stops being a container and becomes an experience.

Architecture is not about choosing between art and engineering.
It is about mastering both — so completely that the division disappears.

CITY-Symbol

The upper section of the cross has been installed on the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.

With this final structural element, the basilica now reaches its full height of 172.5 metres — 143 years after construction began and a century after the death of Antoni Gaudí. The cross itself was assembled like a precise architectural mechanism, lifted and mounted in multiple segments in a carefully staged operation that began in November. Each phase required exact coordination due to weight, wind loads and the extreme elevation.

The completion of this installation marks the symbolic culmination of Gaudí’s vertical vision — a temple conceived as a dialogue between earth and heaven. In the coming weeks, scaffolding will be removed from the central tower, revealing the definitive silhouette that has been evolving over generations.

A project spanning three centuries has reached its final height.
Barcelona’s skyline is no longer a construction site — it is a statement.

ZahaARTs | National Innovation, Creativity and Finance Center, Taipei
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A 47-storey & approx. 175-metre tower inspired by a flower is set to redefine the skyline in Taipei’s Beimen district, near Taipei Main Station.

The National Innovation, Creativity and Finance Center spans 175,000 square metres, combining Taiwan’s key financial institutions, including the Taipei Exchange, with offices, retail and public spaces. Its design is informed by the native Phalaenopsis orchid, celebrated for its layered petals, radial symmetry, and delicate fluting — qualities that translate into the tower’s vertical rhythms, gently modulated façades, and a sense of lightness and suspended movement. Rather than mimicking the flower literally, Zaha Hadid Architects abstracted its structural logic into a refined, flowing composition that rises elegantly above the city.

A five-storey podium, aligned with the scale of the adjacent 1930s post office and sheltered by a sculptural glazed canopy, completes this organic architectural gesture, connecting history, nature and contemporary urban life.