Do you have a BIC ballpoint pen? Almost everyone does! It is the most famous and best-selling pen in history. About 60 pens are sold every second. Its success relies on its affordable price point, reliable ink refill, and worldwide availability.

California pen company ēnsso just unveiled a premium, yet affordable pen for all classic BIC ballpoint refills. The pen is machined from solid bars of space-grade aluminum and natural brass. The lightweight aluminum version is anodized in matte black for an understated and elegant aesthetic while the brass edition is heavier and offers a more tactile experience.

Both pens are exclusively available on Kickstarter for $29.

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Wang Yuchen
China

The Concept of the skyscraper is to provide a building complex for the heaviest disaster area combining the research and rescuing function towards viruses because the virus is still one of the most difficult problems of human beings.

The colossal structures should not serve as a symbol of Maintenance of life and health, but also provide quickly aid the area in the city where new outbreaks of the epidemic situation are happening. The small box packages are prepared into the core generator of the building and transported on the corridors, assembling to be a single first aid kit holding the medicine or a makeshift hospital accompanied by doctors, ready to be dispatched. When needed, they can fly anywhere to rescue the patients. After finishing the tasks, they can fly back to the holes of the building to be recycled and share the data they collected. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Gidich + Sepúlveda Architecture
United States

In a modern world inundated by an extensive sea of technological apparatus, often artifacts and resources available in abundance to the population are obliterated from people’s minds.  Its ubiquity along with its ancient discoveries turns many other methods of usage into obsolete practice.  Cannabis is most certainly one of the world’s best natural resources, yet its consumption continues to be highly and mainly focused on recreational smoking.  Similar to the obsolescence of cannabis purposes are immense building marvels.  Initially designed and engineered with one purpose at hand when they were constructed, however never repurposed as the time evolves.  The Empire High-Rise takes a dive into all the opportunities cannabis has to offer, whilst seamlessly merging the contingencies of repurposed spaces and programs to one of New York’s most iconic hallmark pieces of architecture, The Empire State building. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Ruwan Fernando
Australia

Ever since the Apollo mission showed us the first images of our ‘pale blue dot’ from space, the idea of the world as a ‘whole’ has captured the people’s imagination. Going beyond borders, oceans, and thinking of the continents as a continuous entity comes from this vision. Fifty years later, we face the existential threat of ecological disaster, and maybe revisiting the whole earth project seems like a way of recapturing that drive. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Wang Kewen, Zhang Shuo, Li Yongze
China

Up to this day, human beings have begun to pay more attention to what is the basis of their long-term survival as a higher living creature on the earth. The irrational use of our planet earth, a finite resource in the universe, will cause the demise of humanity. The finite resource is the main carrier of future civilization which gradually goes into people‘s vision these days. Even in deserts, inaccessible places, have a precious resource. By using modern technology, there is a possibility that we could turn the useless sand into the usable materials as building materials and soil for crop cultivation.

Our research is focusing on how to coordinate the advantages of each resource and technology and bring them into the architecture as the container. Our site is located in a desert region in Libya. Generating the new ecological infrastructure, which arranged in the center of existing towns, oases, and areas rich in groundwater, formed into the Tyson polygon, the mathematical model of nature of discrete points to the minimum sum of each distance, spreading over the entire area. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Zhang Mengwei, Xu Jianghuai, Jiang Jiayuan, Yang Shaoxin, Zhang Mengdi, Li Jiaxin
China

In ancient times, the Forbidden City was the core of Beijing City, surrounded by mountains dominated by Yanshan Mountains, forming a scene of “mountains outside the palace wall”. From the Forbidden City along the palace wall, you can see the hazy mountains in the distance. At that time, people were surrounded by nature, lived in poetic nature, and lived in harmony with nature.

With the development of China, Beijing began to expand rapidly. We have to demolish the old city wall located in the second ring road of Beijing and transform it into a wide road to bear heavy traffic pressure. In order to protect the city appearance of the old Beijing, the government stipulated that new buildings within the second ring road should not be built beyond the height limit.

In the 21st century, a large number of immigrants flock to Beijing, a metropolis, resulting in a large number of skyscrapers in Beijing. These skyscrapers encircle the old urban area within the second ring road and change the skyline of Beijing. The skyline of Beijing has changed from the natural form of distant mountains to the cold lines connected by the mechanical high-rise roof. Beijing is more like a skyscraper outside the second ring road. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Seonghwan Lee
United States

How much does it cost to send an International Space Station (ISS)?

It costs $1 billion to send the ISS. It also costs $160 million to send a satellite into space. In addition, a space shuttle must be sent to supply the ISS each time to transport goods.

But the space-elevator is likely to make a major contribution to the industry and can foster the development of future science. In one installation, the vehicle helps transport materials and personnel quickly and easily, moving back and forth through long tubes. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Jiahao Hu, Yitong Li, Xiangzhong Zheng
China

Around the world, increasingly frequent volcanic eruptions and their catastrophic damage have been a difficult problem for humankind for a long time. The volcanic eruption will have a huge impact on human production and life. Among all of the eruption products, the harm of volcanic ash can not be ignored mostly. Volcanic ash can stay in the air for several weeks, pollute the air for a long time and endanger human health. What’s more, it severely hindered aviation flight.

At the same time, a large number of studies have shown that the products of volcanic eruption, especially volcanic ash, can be used in many industries. The temperature difference of the volcano and abundant geothermal energy can also be used for the energy supply of various production activities. Ashes become bricks and thermal energy becomes power. Most of the dust in the ash from the volcanic ash eruption is the same as the city’s main building material­——cement or volcanic ash——is a fire that has been used since Rome. Elves, humans have even learned to take advantage of this volcanic blessing from a long time ago: the majestic architecture of ancient Rome couldn’t rise from the ground without the contribution of concrete made of volcanic ash. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Luca Melchiori, Barbara Schickermueller
Austria

Offshore IN-FLUX is aiming to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of oil platforms in order to work against climate change and the resulting sea-level rise, but still takes into consideration the world’s oil reliance. Currently, already the production and extraction process of oil is releasing enormous amounts of co2 and methane since the energy which is driving the process itself derives from the combustion of fossil fuels. By replacing this with a renewable energy power plant that is directly connected to the oil rig the related emissions could be decreased drastically. How? The kinetic energy of tides and waves that are increasing because of the sea level rise is transformed into potential energy in order to produce electricity to run and maintain the platform. The interaction between the latest technological inventions and well-proofed engineering systems creates an architectural monument that includes the hope for a better future, but also acknowledges the dystopian world we are heading into. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Michal Gryko
United Kingdom

BACKGROUND
The Olympic events are not only known as the world’s principal sports competition but also as an opportunity as a host to showcase a nation’s legacy to the world.   As the games are pushing further through to the 21st century all the enticing prestige associated with hosting such a mega-event has proved to be riddled with economic drains including spiraling costs and ghost facilities remaining in post-event times.  From Seven modestly-sized venues of the first modern Olympics in 1896 to the 34 used in the last 2016 Olympics, the scaling of events and associated infrastructure and facilities has exponentially risen.  Juxtaposing the renowned success of Barcelona’s rejuvenation in from the 1992 Olympics and the dilapidated state of the 2004 Olympic events the post-Olympic inhabitation should be a carefully integrated scheme and not a mere afterthought. What legacy does the hosting country wish to impart in the following decades?

Currently, with preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics moving to the final stages, the proposal takes the opportunity to deliberate the future form of the Olympics and uses for these megastructures using Japan as a case study.  The brief takes a scenario with a twofold approach; first to the scale of the events and associated construction and second to the Olympic park’s second life. Read the rest of this entry »