And rather than operating on batteries or anything so passe ; they have decided to let it operate on solar energy. Nothing radical about it considering the Japanese are coming out with solar powered inventions every other day but of course the fact that this particular 'time piece' as I called it is actually an entire building which will be used to tell the time. The building itself is a residential complex and is one of 24 which will be created in every time zone in the world. The building will use for its rotation merely 21 electic kettles' worth of solar power.

Called as the Time Residences, the towers shall include one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as duplexes and penthouses. The tower was designed by UK architecture firm, Glenn Howells Architects (the company behind the Birmingham Rotunda in the UK) and Palmer and Turner, the master developers of City of Arabia.

"A distinctive time line runs down the building that meets 12 o'clock markings on the ground and the podium, allowing observers to use the building as a fully functioning time piece - it's unique, it's ambitious and it's an honour to be involved from the start," said James Abbott, senior architect at Palmer and Turner.

Dubai's Kulkarni QS will manage the project, while the task of rotating an 80,000 tonne tower through 360 degrees over a seven day period has been handed to Nick Cooper, managing director of Bennett Associates, the British engineer who designed the drill machine that bored the English Channel Tunnel.

Cooper said state of the art bearing systems at several points in the tower will allow a power plant to rotate the base of the tower at 5mm per second using only 21 electic kettles' worth of solar power.

Construction is expected to start in June next year with projected completion in the first quarter of 2009.

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