Seoul skyscrapers, to some, resemble World Trade Center exploding after 9/11; Dutch firm MVRDV sorry

SEOUL, South Korea - A Dutch architectural company has apologized for a design of two Seoul skyscrapers that to some resembles the World Trade Center exploding during the 9/11 terror attacks.

MVRDV said in a statement on its website Monday that it wasn't its intention to create an image evoking the 2001 attacks.

It says it "sincerely" apologizes to anyone whose feelings it has hurt.

The design unveiled in Seoul last week is supposed to show a cloud covering the center of the buildings.

The statement didn't say whether MVRDV will retain the design.

On its Facebook page the company said, "a real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse. MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11, it was not our intention. The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. 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, the design was not meant to provoke this."

A South Korean business partner says construction is to start in 2013.