Cylindrical 10

Source: Te-Ming Chang

Swiss Re HQ, 30 St Mary Axe, London, UK, 2004 designed by Foster + Partners 

London’s first ecological tall building and an instantly recognisable addition to the city’s skyline.

Generated by a radial plan, its energy-conscious enclosure resolves walls and roof into a continuous triangulated skin, allowing column-free floor space, light and views. -- Architect's website

The shafts create a giant double glazing effect; air is sandwiched between two layers of glazing and insulates the office space inside.

The shafts pull warm air out of the building during the summer and warm the building in the winter using passive solar heating. The shafts also allow sunlight to pass through the building, making the work environment more pleasing, and keeping the lighting costs down.  -- Wikipedia

Source: worldarchiecturenews.com

Torre Agbar, Barcelona, Spain, 2005 designed by Jean Nouvel

The surface of the building evokes water: smooth and continuous, shimmering and transparent, its materials reveal themselves in nuanced shades of color and light. It is architecture of the earth without the heaviness of stone, like a distant echo of old Catalan formal obsessions carried by a mysterious wind off the Monserrat.

The ambiguities of material and light make the Agbar tower resonate against Barcelona's skyline day and night, like a distant mirage, marking the entry into the diagonal avenue from the Plaça de les Glorias. This singular object will become the new symbol of Barcelona the international city, and become one of its best ambassaadors. -- Jean Nouvel

Its design combines a number of different architectural concepts, resulting in a striking structure built with reinforced concrete, covered with a facade of glass, and over 4,500 window openings cut out of the structural concrete.  -- Wikipedia

Source: Nelson Garrido archdaily.com

Doha Office Tower, Doha, Qatar, 2010 designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel

45 story cylindrical structure.  The building’s dia-grid gives much character to the project, as it not only provides structural support but also gives the volume a textured appearance from far away that turns into a more delicate patterning in closer range.  The facade is layered with metal brise-soleil based on a traditional Islamic pattern.  The fairly standard geometry module becomes a complex visual as it is rotated and flipped to provide maximum shading for the interior of the building.   In this way, the arrangement of the panels is both functional and supplies the aesthetic touch that will define the tower.  -- ArchDaily