Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Milos Vlastic, Vuk Djordjevic, Ana Lazovic, Milica Stankovic
Serbia

Hydra is a skyscraper that investigates the possibility of creating a power plant that uses hydrogen as source of energy. The international community recognizes hydrogen as a key component of sustainable energy system for the transportation, industrial, residential, and commercial sectors. The power is produced through electrolysis and could be stored in batteries and transported by truck, pipes or cables. Another interesting part is that the by-product of the process is clean water.

Its exoskeleton is built from grapheme, the basic structural element of carbon allotropes such as graphite and carbon. Grapheme has a high thermal and electric conductivity and is two hundred times stronger than steel. The idea for the Hydra skyscraper is to harvest energy from lightning storms and store the power in several mega-batteries located at the base. The project also includes a research facility, housing, and recreational areas for scientists and their families. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

YoungWan Kim, SueHwan Kwun, JunYoung Park, JoongHa Park
Republic of Korea

Despite the alarming news about global warming and its catastrophic consequences, the use of fossil fuels has not decreased. In an effort to alleviate this problem, this project seeks to transforms oil platforms around the world into sustainable seascrapers that produce and store fresh water. The old pipes are adjusted to bring water to spherical containers attached to the main structure which, through a series of distillation processes, produce fresh water and later transports it to countries in need. The project also contains a research facility and housing pods for workers. The platform is transformed into green areas that will serve as recreational areas and farms. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

David Gull, Jin Young Song
United States

For more than one hundred years after the birth of the skyscraper, our tower designs have been defined by a simple notion, a rigid core and heavy perimeter columns. We envision a future skyscraper typology that is more efficient and unburdened by large vertical compression members at the perimeter. The Tensile Tower uses a structural concept that results in uninterrupted views, open space planning, efficient day lighting, and minimal material use.

The Tensile Tower uses one primary mega compression member, which also contains the vertical circulation, much like a traditional core. The perimeter edges of the floor slabs are supported by tensile cables suspended from the top of the mega column. These cables spiral the tower at an angle in both directions, creating a diagonal configuration that provides resistance to torsion and overall stability. The use of suspension members at the perimeter gives unprecedented lightness and openness to the exterior wall of each floor space. For lateral loads that would otherwise cause bending throughout the tower, this bow shape acts like an oversized herring truss; the mega core and slabs as compression members, and the perimeter cables, in tension. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Adam Nakagoshi, Thao Nguyen
United States

Elevated Connectivity is a high-rise proposal that creates a new urban grid above the city by connecting existing skyscrapers. This elevated horizontal platform would become a new type of public domain that will redefine the interaction between people and their city – allowing new program and architecture on the top levels of the existing structures. The entire city would have three main layers. The ground floor will remain public and mainly used for transportation. The middle layer will be a private one with residences and offices while the third one will be dedicated to leisure and entertainment activities. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Dalho Yang, Seungdon Jung
Republic of Korea

One of the most famous buildings in New York is the former New York Times headquarters known as One-Time-Square. The skyscraper opened in 1905 and has been through several renovations and transformations ever since. It is the place where New Yorkers and the world celebrate the New Year with the famous drop ball. Another interesting fact is that its façade is almost entirely covered by the most expensive billboards in the world which cost more than $10,000 per hour.

This proposal seeks to transform the infamous building into a vertical amusement park. The project explores the potential of using a roller coaster as means of transportation between the different programs. It is an exploration of transportation in three dimensions which has never been tested and tries to break the norm of using elevators and horizontal corridors. The park is divided in zones specifically catalogued with different colors with each zone composed of a series of modules attached to a primary steel exoskeleton. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Hyunbeom Cho, JinKyu Pak, HongSup Kim, Jiwon Kim
South Korea

The Korean de-militarized zone (DMZ) is a 2 kilometer area between North and South Korea established in 1950 as a buffer zone between the two nations to prevent further hostilities. After more than 60 years this area has become the habitat of hundreds of endangered species – a pristine habitat untouched by human beings.

The Barbe-wire Skyscraper is based on the idea of a unified Korea in the near future and the importance of preserving the untouched natural habitat of the DMZ. The idea is to create a series of skyscrapers with the existing 250 kilometers of barbed-wire as a landmark of the unified country. The structures are designed as museum and ecological reserve, where visitors will enjoy different sports facilities and outdoor recreational areas. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Milorad Vidojević, Jelena Pucarević, Milica Pihler
Serbia

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a pile of plastic floating in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. The San Francisco Chronicle claims that the patch now weights more than 3.5 million tons, 80% of which is plastic waste that reaches more than thirty meters in depth. This area of the Pacific Ocean is a relatively calm region that causes the accumulation of floating garbage in big piles. Its removal will cost billions of dollars and no country claims responsibility.

This proposal consists of a series of underwaterscrapers, floating islands that will be used to remove and recycle the garbage patch. These are self-sustained structures organized by function hierarchy with four communication cores that connect three main programs – collectors at the bottom, recycling plant in the middle levels, and housing and recreational levels atop. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Victor Kopieikin, Pavlo Zabotin
Ukraine

Mexico City is one of the major and more polluted metropolises in the world. With over 20 million inhabitants, the main problems are the lack of affordable housing, long commute distances, and no recreational areas. The Kinetic Skyscraper addresses these challenges in a unique and innovative way. The structure has three main programs with a geothermal plant at the base, housing and offices in the upper levels, and a solar plant powered by thousands of photovoltaic panels on the façade. The most interesting part of the proposal is the design of kinetic housing units attached to a main exoskeleton. These units resemble a flower and are able to open, close, and direct towards sunlight. The skyscraper also has recreational and working areas – it is a city within the city. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Mengni Zhang
United States

In December 2010, the Ukrainian government lifted the restriction on tourism in the zone around the Chernobyl power plant. Conceptually, this proposal deals with the reconstruction of a post apocalyptic environment. Since the accident in 1986 the site has been abandoned long enough for nature to take over, the absence of humans provides an opportunity for creating a utopian vision for a city. The proposed structure would engage the existing site and architecture as a new layer of landscape, a network of self-evolving skyscrapers that will address scientific, cultural, and historical concerns.

Due to the unpredictable distribution of fallout materials and possible radiation, the primary structure will be manufactured with light-weight fiber composite materials and fixed and transported onto the site by air. Secondary structures, such as highways and other programs, can be built above ground like cantilevered bridges. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2011 Skyscraper Competition

Adrian Vincent Kumar, Yun Kong Sung
New Zealand

Air pollution is a major problem in the city of Guangzhou, China. The main contributor to the air quality is the outrageous number of industrial facilities within the metropolitan area.

The White Cloud Project is an air purification network of skyscrapers. These are inverted buildings that liberate the base for public use and create a cluster of structural branches with residences and offices on top – almost like a group of trees. The structure is covered by a fine membrane that cleans the air through an ingenious filtering process. The air particles are trapped by the cloth-like structure and washed away by a constant mist. At the same time the collected dust is transported through a secondary branching system to a brick factory on the bottom. Read the rest of this entry »