Green Skyscrapers
In the next few days we will showcase 25 innovative proposals for green skyscrapers. These projects were submitted for the Annual Skyscraper Competition from 2006 to 2009.

Project 20 of 25

Domenic Cerantonio, Michael Wu, Wilson Tang
Australia

Voronoi Skyscraper

Poreux is a Project located in Docklands waterfront Melbourne, Australia. It is a proposal to Bridge Docklands to Melbourne centre activity district. The railway tracks split the two places, discouraging a fluid transition of urban life. A Voronoi network is used as the basis of the design concept as an attempt to evenly distribute density of population and programs horizontally and vertically, diffusing the hierarchical organization inherent in a city iron grid to encourage every network reaching its potential. The programs have been scrutinized at both the macro level and micro level to ensure it embraces and contributes to its surrounding to make Docklands a more accessible and a more pleasurable place to be in.

Voronoi is a special kind of decomposition of a metric space determined by distances to a specified discrete set of objects in the space the tessellation can be performed in 2D and 3D. Programmatic mapping of existing surroundings were conducted as a source of exploration in the observation of possible voronoi patterns. Four main activities nodes (residential, recreational, commercial and transportation) were identified and fed into a voronoi script to generate overlays of patterns based on each activity nodes. The four different nodal abstract grids were then superimposed to form a denser grid in an attempt to explore the possibilities of how an urban informed voronoi map could inform architecture and urban spaces.

The building
The overly reliance of vertical lifts in a conventional skyscraper have been replaced with an extensive use of escalators and stairs. Staggering floor plates between cells emphasize this; the overall atmosphere internally is one of openness, interactivity and spontaneity. Being able to make decisions to destination on visual cues is vital in increasing the urban street life in a skyscraper.

A three dimensional voronoi structure combine load bearing capacities, façade, structure, and enclosure opportunities in one element. This creates an extremely efficient form of construction by using less material than more conventional post and beam construction systems.

Voronoi Skyscraper - 1

Voronoi Skyscraper - 2