Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Jin Ho Kim
United Kingdom

Nowadays approximately 3 billion people rely on rice as their major source of food. It is expected that the rice demand will continue to accelerate and by 2025 more than 4 billion people will rely on it. As a consequence local governments in East Asia have established a total control on rice fields and production. This has been a disastrous event for the local farmers and has left the price of rice in absolute control of a handful of people. It is also expected that the price of rice will gradually increase to a point in which the majority of the Asian population will not be able to afford it.

This project proposes the creation of decentralized aeroponic vertical farmlands that will be able to provide enough rice for future generations. The basic structure consists of an array of bamboo parallelograms that create stepping terraces of rice fields. It counts with a natural irrigation system where gradually flows down with gravity through a network of irrigation paths. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Ivan Maltsev, Artem Melnik
Russia

The form of a skyscraper is a growing crystal – a structure characterized by the inconstancy and regularity of its elements. The height of the units ranges from 130 to 180 m. At the full height, in the center of Multipurpose Research Complex (MNC), is a static rod – a quantum safe energy source, which will produce energy in the required quantity. The center of quantum computing, greenhouses, walking tracks and, aeration blocks are placed in immediate proximity. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Zhang Zhiyang, Liu Chunyao
China

This project begins with the premise that Shanghai’s distribution of water resources is out of balance. The first problem is a lack of groundwater; according to the designers of the Water Re-balance tower, the people of Shanghai, in the quest for clean water, have taken so much water from under the city since 1860 that the city itself has sunk 1.7 meters in the past 40 years. Additionally, the water supplies that do exist today are largely polluted. Despite that shortage, the city does experience flooding in monsoon season, and the Suzhou River’s level can sometimes reach to the city’s streets.

By building towers that can collect and purify rainwater and also purify the water from the river, several advantageous things occur: clean, drinkable water is readily available for the city; rising river levels are mitigated before flooding occurs; and clean water can also be pumped back under ground to fix the sinking subsidence problem the city is experiencing. Further, the tower collects organic matter as it filters the water and uses that waste to develop and feed farmland, wetlands, and to grow green algae. The farm and wetlands purify the air, and the algae is cultivated and processed within the tower by a generator to create energy. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Xiaomiao Xiao, Lixiang Miao, Xinmin Li, Minzhao Guo
China

The Crater Scraper project is an imagined solution for the healing of the Earth’s surface as the planet suffers the impact of major asteroid strikes. Asteroid craters could be filled in with built settlements, holding communities of different sizes (depending on the size of the crater).

As cities historically form at a core and extend peripherally, Crater Scrapers too have a central core that connects the settlement as a whole vertically and horizontally. Elevator systems link infrastructure vertically, from the bottom of the crater to the Earth’s surface; at the top, a separate transportation system links the community across the expanse of the filled-in indentation. At the bottom of the city, people traverse its length on foot.

The crater is filled with towers and structures that are covered by a roof system that has large holes, causing the built community, from an aerial view, to resemble mesh. Imagining that top-down view, each cylindrical opening of the mesh holds a type of development that is needed for the community to function, from residences to shops and offices to hospitals to recreational spaces. The community as a whole is developed with the garden city model in mind, featuring a central park located at the core and open green spaces interspersed throughout. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Liangpeng Chen, Yating Chen, Lida Huang, Gaoyan Wu, Lin Yuan
China

The abandoned Shenfu Dongsheng coalfield, was China’s largest coal-producing base goaf. The goaf not only influenced the local soil and land, but also wasted the terrestrial heat at a large scale whit a lot of consequences such as collapse,debris flow and soil erosion, destruction of building and cropland, atmosphere pollution etc.

The project proposes to reuse the goaf and part of the pipelines on the working platforms. The vertical pipelines will work as the chief transportation system. The main volumes are deposited in the site.

Applying principles used in miner, the horizontal skyscraper will use the existing vertical miner elevator systems as a way of transportation. The housing and habitable space will be underground , supported by vertical tube that will bring fresh air in the water will be taken from the underground soil trough advanced and explorative techniques and will be heated by geothermal processes. The terrestrial heat is used to cultivate the saplings and then the grown trees are replanted on the mountains to renovate the worn-out land. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Yeonkyu Park, Kwon Han, Haeyeon Kwon, Hojeong Lim
United States

Located in the Republic of Chile, Atacama Desert is one of the oldest and driest places on Earth. This desert is fenced by the Andes Mountains on one side and the Chilean Coast Range on the other. The moisture which comes from the Pacific Ocean cannot get through either side and creates a “rain shadow effect.” Due to this geographic situation, Atacama Desert is constantly dry even though it is located near the Pacific Ocean. People living in Atacama are at risk and degradation is spreading rapidly. However, a dense fog known as “Camanchaca” could potentially end desertification in the Atacama Desert. Sourced from the Pacific Ocean, this fog has the potential to nourish plants and other living organisms. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Chen Yao, Xiao Yunfeng, Li Xiaodi, Xie Rui, Yin Xiaoxiang
China

The rising of sea level is one of the most dramatic crisis that modern cities face in the last decades. It is estimated that sea level will rise of more than 500mm by the end of this century. At that time, 600 million people will lose their homeland with 3000 cities sinking into the water. Since 2/3 of the world’s population is settled in the coastal areas.

The Promised Land is conceived as “humans” final homeland, a self-sustainable city on submerged places, shape as massive cross rising over the water level. The building works as a modular self assembly system. Prefabricated girders and columns made of reinforced concrete are fixed on the ground as foundation, then prefabricated floors are placed in order to sustain the different programatic modules.

By using a modular assembly system, the skyscraper is able to be built constantly, making it possible to develop upper programs continually. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Mamon Alexander, Tyutyunnik Artem
Ukraine

The Ring of Mars is a closed self-sufficient off-line mega-structure, which contains all functions for comfortable existence and development of all life forms.The ring is designed on the model of linear cities, a circular system for comfortable connection of all parts of the structure as single agglomerate. Read the rest of this entry »

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