cake-like layers stack into a shared motion installation in china, bringing strangers into sync

twirl tower comes alive through shared rotation in china

At Shenzhen’s OCT-LOFT, Daxing Jizi Design’s Twirl Tower is a public installation created for the 2026 Super New Year event, which works as a kinetic system powered by its visitors. Turn the circular base, and the whole structure begins to respond, gears catching one another as movement travels upward through its stacked layers. 

The form borrows from a celebration cake, with layered rings rising one above the other, soft in appearance yet precise in construction. Inside, one tier moves forward, and the next reverses, creating a continuous back-and-forth rhythm.

As the motion builds, the tower becomes a shifting field of color and rotation. Bands slide past each other, patterns realign, and the structure feels like an event unfolding in real time. Twirl Tower comes alive through collective effort. One person can start the movement, but it’s never quite enough. The installation asks for more hands, more bodies, more presence. Gradually, strangers fall into sync, turning together without needing to negotiate or explain, and as the tower spins, light and color ripple across its surface.

Daxing Jizi Design extends the language with matching chairs

The project continues beyond the tower itself with the introduction of Twirl Chairs, a series of circular and semi-arc benches spread across the site. These elements carry the same visual language but translate it into a slower, more grounded experience.

Placed around trees and along pathways, the benches invite you to sit alone or naturally gather people into small groups. The layered rings reappear here as colored bands across the surfaces, a subtle echo of the tower’s movement.

With Twirl Tower, the team at Daxing Jizi Design shifts attention from the object itself to what happens around it. The real outcome isn’t just the spinning structure but the interactions it sets in motion. When everything comes to a stop, something still lingers. A shared rhythm, a brief connection, the memory of having moved together. Through a simple act of turning, the installation shapes public space into something more personal, shaped as much by people as by design.

project info:

name: Twirl Tower

artist: Daxing Jizi Design | @daxingjizi

location: South Gate Plaza, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, China

area: 30 square meters

project director: Xie Qiongzhi

lead designer: Zeng Zhenwei

mechanical design: Luo Yueci

photographer: Zhang Chao, Zhu Huiyan, OCT-LOFT

video: Ye Xiangyu

promotion support: Tsui Chinguen

client: OCT-LOFT