SOCAR Tower

SOCAR Tower is a skyscraper in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is the 4th tallest building in Baku and in Azerbaijan. The skyscraper serves as the headquarters of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic). It is one of Baku's major landmarks, along with the Flame Towers.

Construction started in 2010 and was completed in 2016. It was the tallest building in Baku until it was surpassed by the Port Baku Towers.

Design
The building, which was designed by Heerim Architects from South Korea, is an example of structural expressionism. It is composed of two towers which curve around each other as they rise, according to skyscraper.com, "the seemingly shorter tower almost looks like it's resting its head on the chest of the taller tower. The taller towers peak slightly, bending over it in a confident, reassuring and comforting manner". The tower is 209 m tall and has 42 floors, covering an area of 12,000 m2 and providing 100,000 m2 of usage area. The headquarters mainly houses office space, but it also has conference and sports facilities, a guest house, retail spaces and food outlets.

The building's design is based on a composite system of steel construction (made by Permasteelisa Group) with reinforced concrete walls. The building is designed to be resistant to wind speeds of 190 km/h and a magnitude nine earthquakes by the Richter scale.

The building, designed by South Korean Heerim Architects & Planners Co. Ltd, based on the concept of "wind and fire", was built by the Turkish company Tekfen Construction and Installation.