Taiwan's third largest city, Taichung will soon be home to Floating Observatories, the world's most futuristic looking building. Scheduled to break ground in 2012, the building will house a museum, restaurants, offices, as well as, an urban park.

Floating Observatories, which was conceived by a team of European architects led by Stefan Dori, was selected from thousands of entries submitted to the organizers of the Taiwan Tower Conceptual International Competition, held by the country to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the founding of Taiwan R.O.C. and to symbolize Taiwan's new spirit.

The design, which resembles a tree with eight (lucky number in Taiwan) floating leaf-like observatories was inspired by the shape of the Island, which closely resembles a leaf. The observatories will actually be elevators with the capacity to carry up to 80 people to their destination, inside the building. Built using Space age lightweight material, they will glide on a vertical track held together by a strong electromagnetic field.

As would be expected, the building will be very environmentally friendly, featuring turbines, solar cells an even a geothermal power plant installed in the building's basement, to provide heating and hot water.

While the Floating Observatories also known as Taiwan Tower, will not be the tallest building in Taiwan when completed, it will certainly stand out as one of the most unusual examples of architecture, ever built.

Sources:physorg.com,dailymail.co.uk