Korean 2Towers
© redOrbit
The Dutch architecture firm MVRDV has come under heavy fire this week for its proposed design of two high-rise luxury apartments in Seoul, South Korea.

According to critics, the two roughly 850-feet towers bear a striking resemblance to New York's ill-fated twin towers shortly after they were attacked by terrorists flying two high-jacked jetliners.

Designers say that the buildings' design - which they call 'The Cloud' - was intended to resemble a "pixilated cloud" connecting the mid-section of the towers. A number of mostly American critics, however, say that the similarity is just too uncanny to be coincidental.

"I think it's a total lie and they have no respect for the people who died that day," vented Jim Riches, a former NY firefighter whose son died in on 9/11, to the New York Daily News.

"They're crossing a line. It looks just like the towers imploding," he added. "I think they're trying to sensationalize it. It's a cheap way to get publicity."

While not everyone has imputed ill-motives to the Netherlands-based company, many still find the condominiums' design 'disturbing' and believe it may be an highly imprudent move for the firm to move forward with the project.

"What the hell were these architects thinking?" was the incendiary title of a lead article in the digital tech journal Gizmodo.

Still, representatives from MVRDV have insisted that the design was by no means intended to look like the World Trade Center towers.

"MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud project evokes regarding 9/11," wrote the firm in an official statement posted on its website.

"It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, it was not our intention."

Yet despite their apology and the harsh reaction that the buildings have elicited from the American media, the firm says it will proceed with the construction of the buildings which are scheduled to be completed in 2015.

"A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse," a representative from MVRDV commented on the company's Facebook page.

In a truly ironic coincidence, 'The Cloud' will stand juxtaposed to a project from world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, the master-designer behind the plans for the reconstructed World Trade Center.