The Socialist, the Architect and the Twisted Tower

The socialist is Johnny Örbäck, a former social democrat politician who is now the CEO of a co-operative housing company. The architect is Santiago Calatrava, one of the world's leading architects with commissions ranging from the Museum of Modern Art, to the Athens Olympic Sports Complex to bridges and opera houses around the globe. And the twisted tower is the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Sweden, a daringly experimental apartment tower with the potential to win awards or wreck careers. Calatrava’s innovative design, based on the human body in motion, ignites the imagination of Örback, one of the legion of European social democrats who must balance his social beliefs and his desire to make the world a better place with the pragmatics of delivering results to an increasingly sceptical public. Come on an engrossing voyage of discovery to find out how an artistic vision is given concrete form in an environment that demands collaboration and in which problems can suddenly blow out to deficits of millions of dollars—a bit like filmmaking.

Fredrik Gertten is a Guest of the Festival

A riveting story well told

Leonardo, International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology