A joint project of Büro Ole Scheeren and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, this skyscraper nearing completion in Bangkok, Thailand, features shifted box elements that break up its surface to create balconies and terraces.

Located downtown, the 77-story building features hundreds of apartments, a hotel and other mixed-use functions, including, plazas, shops, bars and restaurants. It is also the tallest building in the city. Originally scheduled for completion in 2010, the structure will now be finished this year (recent photographs above and below by Simon Rawlings, benstinyplanet and tsa.p).

Renderings below illustrate the street-level entrances, an aerial perspective and close-up views of the pixelation effects, as well as showing how the design evolved from concept to reality (as compared to photographs of its current state above).

From the architects: “The design moves beyond the traditional formula of a seamless, inert, glossy totem, and instead actively engages the city: MahaNakhon’s pixilated and carved presence embraces and connects to the surrounding urban fabric rather than overpowering it.”

“Its glittering stacked surfaces, terraces and protrusions will simultaneously create the impression of digital pixilation and echo the irregularity of ancient mountain topography.”