2001s Monolith Enters Into Reality

In one of the most famous moments in film, the prehistoric human ancestors encounter a mysterious black monolith during the opening act of 2001 Space Odyssey.

This is a scene that could soon be repeated in the present day Croatian capital of Zagreb, complete with English tourists howling drunkenly like senseless Neanderthals, if plans for a new skyscraper get approved.

Planned by architects, Hrvoj Bakran, Drazen Plevk and Zdravki Krasic, it's the winning entry of 8 finalists of a skyscraper competition to design the tallest building in the city.

The scheme is literally called Black Monolith, perhaps in tribute to the Stanley Kubrick movie and the key object in it that according to the plot inspired mankind to move from being an animal towards human intelligence and the Age of Enlightenment.

With an overwhelmingly minimalist approach, it features a smoothly glazed near pure black box rising 160 metres tall with 41 floors that will tower over the skyline like a sentinel. The massing of the building even takes on similar dimensions to the famous flat slab from the movie with a slender width and broader front and almost identical ratios of 1 to 4 to 9.

With such a referential approach to Anthony Masters famous production design, rarely has life mimicked as much or on such a scale. With the reputation of the film it may be exactly what Zagreb needs to be put on the architectural map.