The race to build the world’s most spectacular skyscraper has reached new heights – and taken a turn in direction.

Designs for ‘The Big Bend’, a slender tower that would transform Manhattan’s skyline, have been unveiled.

Described as the ‘longest building in the world’, the project’s concept drawings reveal a skyscraper reaching an apex then curving back down. And featuring an elevator system that can travel in curves, horizontally and in loops.

Designs for ‘The Big Bend’, a slender tower that would transform Manhattan’s skyline, have been unveiled

Stretching 4,000 feet long, the glass-lined tower would need to feature an elevator that defies all current designs

The elevator would travel in curves horizontally and in continuous loops. The track changing system allows for the horizontal connection of two shafts on the top and bottom to create a continuous loop

In a bid to work around the challenges of New York’s zoning laws, design studio Oiio has imagined an innovative concept to straddle Billionaire’s Row on 57th Street.

The studio explained: ‘New York city’s zoning laws have created a peculiar set of tricks through which developers try to maximise their property’s height in order to infuse it with the prestige of a high rise structure. But what if we substituted height with length? What if our buildings were long instead of tall?

‘If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan. The longest building in the world.’

The designs were conceived in a bid to work around the challenges of New York’s zoning laws, with the structure imagined as straddling Billionaire’s Row on 57th Street

Explaining the change in architectural direction, the team cited that since the emergence of One57, in 2014, everything changed for 57th Street. By the first quarter of 2016 there was a 625 per cent increase in its sales average, they claim. This has recently prompted a trend for skinny skyscrapers

Stretching 4,000ft-long, the glass-lined tower would need to feature an elevator that goes far beyond all current designs.

The team explained: ‘What was once considered to be the greatest challenge in elevator history, is finally becoming reality: the elevator that can travel in curves, horizontally and in continuous loops.

‘The innovative track changing system allows for the horizontal connection of two shafts on the top and bottom to create a continuous loop.’

The longest tower in the world, The Big Bend would be double the height of the tallest addresses across the world at present – if it was stretched out

The team explained: ‘The Big Bend can become a modest architectural solution to the height limitations of Manhattan. We can now provide our structures with the measurements that will make them stand out without worrying about the limits of the sky’

Explaining the change in architectural direction, the team cited that since the emergence of One57, in 2014, everything changed for 57th Street.

By the first quarter of 2016 there was a 625 per cent increase in its sales average, they claim. This has recently prompted a trend for skinny skyscrapers or ‘super-slenders’.

The team’s press release states: ‘There is an undeniable obsession that resides in Manhattan. It is undeniable because it is made to be seen. There are many different ways that can make a building stand out, but in order to do so the building has to literally stand out.

‘We have become familiar with building height measurements. We usually learn about the latest tallest building and we are always impressed by it’s price per square foot. It seems that a property’s height operates as a license for it to be expensive.

‘The Big Bend can become a modest architectural solution to the height limitations of Manhattan. We can now provide our structures with the measurements that will make them stand out without worrying about the limits of the sky.’