广州塔

This guide to the Canton Tower in Guangzhou follows Dutch architect Mark Hemel and his partner Barbara Kuit, who in 2004 entered a competition for the city's new television tower against far bigger names, pitching a curved, waist-pinched form instead of something angular and monumental. It traces how the design won, earning the local nickname slim waist, and the years Arup's engineers spent making a lattice of leaning steel columns and diagonal braces actually stand. Construction began in 2005, and locals had already given the tower its nickname before Hemel ever wrote a book about the idea.