Twirl Tower by Daxing Jizi Design spins through collective interaction in Shenzhen

At OCT-LOFT, during the 2026 Super New Year programme, Daxing Jizi Design presents Twirl Tower, an installation that shifts attention away from the object itself toward the conditions of its activation. Rather than occupying space as a fixed sculptural presence, the work depends on the continuous negotiation between body, mechanism, and environment. It proposes a form that only becomes legible through use.

The installation draws from the familiar image of a layered celebration cake, translating it into a vertical composition of stacked circular tiers. This analogy is not decorative but operative. Each ring is embedded within a mechanical system of interlocking gears, where adjacent levels rotate in opposing directions. The upper portion of each gear drives the level above forward, while the lower portion pulls the level below backward, establishing a continuous chain of counter movement.

The system is activated at ground level. When visitors engage the base disc, motion propagates upward, distributing energy through the entire structure. The tower does not simply turn. It unfolds as a sequence of relational movements, where each layer responds to the one before it. In this sense, the work is less an object than a diagram of transmitted force, made visible through collective action.

The experience of Twirl Tower is contingent upon participation. The mechanism resists individual control, requiring multiple bodies to generate sufficient momentum. This threshold transforms the act of interaction into a shared condition. Participation becomes instinctive, requiring no instruction, no prior knowledge, and no alignment of identity. The gesture of turning is enough.

In this moment, the installation suspends the need for programmed festivity. Celebration emerges through coordination rather than spectacle. As the structure rotates, colour and light shift across its surfaces, producing a perceptual rhythm that extends beyond the visual into the physical register of the body. When the motion slows and eventually stops, what remains is not the object itself but the residue of the encounter, held in memory and in the awareness of others.

The project extends beyond the central installation through Twirl Chairs, a series of circular and semi arc seating elements distributed across the site. These pieces translate the logic of rotation into a quieter, more durable presence. Positioned around trees and along pathways, they offer spaces for pause rather than activation.

The layered coloured rings embedded in their surfaces recall the sliced geometry of the tower, yet their function is no longer kinetic. Here, the emphasis shifts toward proximity and coexistence. Individuals sit, gather, or remain alone, while the memory of movement lingers as a latent condition. The installation thus expands from an event into an atmosphere, diffusing its energy into everyday use.

Twirl Tower situates itself within a lineage of participatory public art that seeks to reframe the relationship between citizens and shared space. Yet its specificity lies in the reduction of interaction to a single, accessible gesture. By stripping participation down to the act of turning, the project reveals how minimal physical engagement can generate complex social and spatial effects.

In this work, the city is not a backdrop but a field of potential coordination. The installation does not impose meaning. It enables it to emerge through contact, timing, and collective presence. What it ultimately produces is not movement alone, but a temporary alignment between strangers, held together by the rhythm of a shared action.

Project Credit

Project name: Twirl Tower  
Design: Daxing Jizi Design / @daxingjizi
Photo: ZHANG Chao, ZHU Huiyan, OCT-LOFT  
Video: YE Xiangyu
Area: 30㎡ 
Location: South Gate Plaza, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China