twirl tower comes alive through shared rotation in china
At Shenzhen’s OCT-LOFT, Daxing Jizi Design’s Twirl Tower is a public installation created for the 2026 Super New Year event, which works as a kinetic system powered by its visitors. Turn the circular base, and the whole structure begins to respond, gears catching one another as movement travels upward through its stacked layers.
The form borrows from a celebration cake, with layered rings rising one above the other, soft in appearance yet precise in construction. Inside, one tier moves forward, and the next reverses, creating a continuous back-and-forth rhythm.
As the motion builds, the tower becomes a shifting field of color and rotation. Bands slide past each other, patterns realign, and the structure feels like an event unfolding in real time. Twirl Tower comes alive through collective effort. One person can start the movement, but it’s never quite enough. The installation asks for more hands, more bodies, more presence. Gradually, strangers fall into sync, turning together without needing to negotiate or explain, and as the tower spins, light and color ripple across its surface.
visitors activate the rotating base | image by Zhang Chao
Daxing Jizi Design extends the language with matching chairs
The project continues beyond the tower itself with the introduction of Twirl Chairs, a series of circular and semi-arc benches spread across the site. These elements carry the same visual language but translate it into a slower, more grounded experience.
Placed around trees and along pathways, the benches invite you to sit alone or naturally gather people into small groups. The layered rings reappear here as colored bands across the surfaces, a subtle echo of the tower’s movement.
With Twirl Tower, the team at Daxing Jizi Design shifts attention from the object itself to what happens around it. The real outcome isn’t just the spinning structure but the interactions it sets in motion. When everything comes to a stop, something still lingers. A shared rhythm, a brief connection, the memory of having moved together. Through a simple act of turning, the installation shapes public space into something more personal, shaped as much by people as by design.
setting the tower’s layered gears into motion | image by Zhang Chao
illuminated discs shift in color | image by Zhang Chao
warm light radiates through rotating elements | image courtesy of OCT-LOFT
the multi-tiered structure rises like a luminous, kinetic ‘celebration cake’ | image by Zhang Chao
close-up of interlocking layers reveals the tower’s gear-driven system | image by Zhu Huiyan
translucent panels filter light and color across the structure’s stacked rings | image by Zhu Huiyan
twirl chairs form a circular seating landscape | image by Feng Ge
extending the installation’s language into everyday use | image by Zhang Chao
children and adults collaborate to activate the rotating platform | image by Zhang Chao
collective movement sets the structure in motion | image by Zhu Huiyan
the multi-tiered installation stands within the urban fabric | image by Zhu Huiyan
the tower gathers visitors around its base | image by Zhang Chao
project info:
name: Twirl Tower
artist: Daxing Jizi Design | @daxingjizi
location: South Gate Plaza, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China
area: 30 square meters
project director: Xie Qiongzhi
lead designer: Zeng Zhenwei
mechanical design: Luo Yueci
photographer: Zhang Chao, Zhu Huiyan, OCT-LOFT
video: Ye Xiangyu
promotion support: Tsui Chinguen
client: OCT-LOFT
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