This is the first glimpse of Tbilisi Business Centre, a government building that will be set on the banks of the river Kura next to a high profile neighbour, the Bank of Georgia. The latter is a much-loved concrete masterpiece from the Soviet era.

The architectural tension between the concrete, heavy, yet inventive Bank of Georgia, and the light, glassy, business centre, seems analogous to the ideological tensions between the former communist system and the free market, here represented by the proposed building.

London based Robin Monotti Architects authored the scheme and it now has full government approval.

The design is inspired by the Colkhetian gold temple whose spiral rings dated back to the 5th century BC. In this recent incarnation each storey appears as a disk that is eccentrically set about a vertical axis rising in a spiral. The building will be 16 stories tall and will be clad in solar control glass. Where one floor cantilevers out it will form a balcony as well as provide some solar shade for the floor beneath.

by editorial office Detail Daily on 04/09/2013

A link to the article can be found here:
http://www.detail-online.com/daily/an-upward-spiral-georgian-government-building-tbilisi-by-robin-monotti-architects-10562/