Outrage over plans for Korean buildings identical to burning Twin Towers... and the architects claim they didn't notice

Dutch architects reveal plans for apartment towers in Seoul, South Korea

But they incredibly appear to look like World Trade Center exploding on 9/11

Company MVRDV says it didn't 'see resemblance during the design process'



This does not appear to be a sick joke. Architects have designed a pair of apartment towers in South Korea that are unbelievably reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks on New York's World Trade Centre.

These incredible pictures show how Dutch architecture firm MVRDV somehow managed to design the eerie 260-metre and 300-metre towers next to each other, connected by a ‘pixelated cloud’.

And in a good contender for quote of the year, a company statement insists they did not ‘see the resemblance during the design process’ for the buildings - due to be completed in Seoul in 2015.

Madness: Dutch architecture firm MVRDV has designed a pair of apartment towers in South Korea that are unbelievably reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre

Plans: MVRDV designed a 260-metre and 300-metre tower next to each other, joined by a 'pixelated cloud' The luxury residential towers have been named ‘The Cloud’, with one reaching 260 metres or 54 floors and the other covering 60 floors over 300 metres. The total surface area is 128,000 sq metres. The ‘cloud' is housed in a 10-floor tall structure positioned halfway up the structures, and the towers feature a fitness studio, pools, restaurants, cafes and a conference centre. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

1

Next The unassuming one-storey office in busy Bucharest that was... Share this article Share ‘MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes (sic) regarding 9/11,’ a statement on the company’s website said, as it tries to stem the outrage it has already caused. ‘It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologise to anyone whose feelings we have hurt.’ Architectural team: Winy Maas, Jacob Van Rijs and Nathalie De Vries (left-to-right) are pictured in the Facebook profile picture of MVRDV

At night: The luxury residential towers have been named 'The Cloud', with one reaching 260 metres or 54 floors and the other housing 60 floors in 300 metres - and a total surface area of 128,000 sq metres A statement on the company's Facebook page added: 'A real media storm has started and we receive (sic) threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse.' 'A real media storm has started and we receive (sic) threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse' MVRDV The company said the Korean press did not report any resemblance to 9/11 and instead 'hailed the project as a great innovation'. 'Basically the negative connotations came from the USA,' it added. What makes this even more incredible is how nobody at the firm spotted the resemblance to the Twin Towers. The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon killed almost 3,000 people. MVRDV is an award-winning firm based in Rotterdam set up in 1993. It was featured in the New York Times three years ago and has designed buildings in Cleveland, New Orleans and New York.

Seoul space: The 'cloud' in the middle is a 10-floor tall structure positioned halfway up the structures, and the towers feature a fitness studio, pools, restaurants, cafes and a conference centre Harrowing: Smoke billows from one of the towers of the World Trade Center as flames and debris explodes from the second tower in this photo from September 11, 2001

And in what could be seen as a contradiction to the company’s statement, MVRDV spokesman Jan Knikker told Dutch-language newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that the link to 9/11 has in fact been made.

'It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologise to anyone whose feelings we have hurt' MVRDV

'I must admit that we also thought of September 11, 2001,' he says, in a translation of an article on Friday from Dutch to English. 'But it is not intended association with the attacks.'

In an interesting development it has been revealed ‘The Cloud’ will be built in the ‘Youngsan Dream Hub’, which is in part designed by the man behind the new World Trade Center complex.

Daniel Libeskind also presented a plan for a revamped lower Manhattan after 9/11 - which is closely resembled by the new buildings by MVRDV, reported by the International Business Times.