In Toronto, they also have a dancing house, but they call it Marilyn

Mississauga - Those who yearn for the most modern architecture free from straight curves and defying gravity will likely head to the Middle East or China. Few would search for something similar in the Canadian city of Mississauga, even though with more than 730,000 residents, it ranks among the six largest cities in the country. The first tenants have started moving into the fifty-six-story tower, nicknamed Marilyn Monroe by locals for its sensual curves, and the interest has been overwhelming, writes The International Herald Tribune.
    Marilyn was created as a result of an international architectural competition held over six years ago, organized by the Fernbrook Cityzen company. The design of the Absolute tower won thanks to Chinese architect Ma Jianzhong and his partner Qun Tang. The building, overflowing with curves, contains 428 residential units. They were sold so quickly that the contracting company requested an extension.
    Next to Marilyn stands a fifty-story neighbor, containing 433 apartments. It also bends before its own axis, but not as much as Marilyn, so it does not cast shadows on her.
    Both buildings are the last of five residential towers that emerged at the city's main intersection, opposite the Square One shopping center, which is one of the largest shopping places in the Toronto area. The first three buildings are much more conventional, and together all five form a residential area called Absolute World.
    Architect Ma is a native Beijinger who discovered the competition online in 2005 and had never heard of Mississauga before. However, as he studied at Yale University, he knew what an average medium-sized North American city looks like. "I imagined Mississauga as a city on its way to becoming something like Chicago or Toronto, a city with many skyscrapers," he said.
    When he thought about it, he didn't start drawing straight lines, but chose to create something softer and more life-like. "I told myself that North American cities need something more natural, organic, more human," he explained. He is very fond of the nickname Marilyn as it distinguishes his building from other buildings in the world that resist straight lines. To Ma's taste, they are still quite geometric.
    A true analogy for his building could be Prague's Dancing House, which has curves resembling a dancing couple, also known as Ginger and Fred. The authors are American-Canadian architect Frank Gehry and Czech architect of Croatian descent Vlado Milunić.
    Thanks to the unpredictable curves, Ma's buildings in Mississauga always look different, depending on the angle from which you view them. They posed a great challenge for builders and engineers. "In Marilyn and its neighbor, every floor is different. It was difficult to build and achieve the functionality of the structure," admits Sigmund Soudack, owner of the consulting firm.
    Although the floor plates are the same, they needed to be rotated at various angles. Load-bearing walls had to be expanded in some places and thinned out in others, supporting columns extended or shortened to properly support each floor above.
    The uneven exterior walls did not allow builders to use external lifts, so they had to design their own internal elevator. "None of the 428 apartments in Marilyn is identical to another," claims Anthony Pignetti, deputy director of the construction company Dominus Construction Group, which built the Absolute towers.
    Each floor is completely encircled by balconies. All of them needed to be separated in some way from the main floor slab, so that they would not draw heat from the apartments or cooled air. Engineers solved this by designing kind of thermal brakes. The chief engineer from Soudack's firm, Yury Gelman, says that the designers will attempt to obtain a patent for it.
    Absolute World cost 450 million Canadian dollars (8.1 billion crowns), with more than half used for the construction of the two rounded towers. The first residents are moving into Marilyn, with occupancy of the lower neighbor starting in the fall.
    Almost all apartments in Marilyn were reportedly sold in June 2006 within 24 hours, while apartments in the neighboring building were sold out within a few weeks. Both sold at a price just slightly higher than the usual in Toronto and the surrounding area, translating to around 80,000 crowns per square meter. Many buyers are from the Toronto area, but a significant number are also foreign buyers from the Middle East and Asia.