REGISTRATION IS CLOSED
WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED ON MARCH 17, 2014

eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe to take part in the eVolo 2014 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one of the world’s most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. It is a forum that examines the relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the city.

The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants, pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl.

The competition is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. It is also a response to the exploration and adaptation of new habitats and territories based on a dynamic equilibrium between man and nature – a new kind of responsive and adaptive design capable of intelligent growth through the self-regulation of its own systems.

There are no restrictions in regards to site, program or size. The objective is to provide maximum freedom to the participants to engage the project without constraints in the most creative way. What is a skyscraper in the 21st century? What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures?

eVolo Magazine is committed to continue stimulating the imagination of designers around the world – thinkers that initiate a new architectural discourse of economic, environmental, intellectual, and perceptual responsibility that could ultimately modify what we understand as a contemporary skyscraper, its impact on urban planning and on the improvement of our way of life.

Registration

Architects, students, engineers, and designers are invited to participate in the competition. We encourage you to have multidisciplinary teams.

• Participants must register by January 14, 2014.
• Early Registration:  USD $95 until November 19, 2013.
• Late Registration: USD $115 from November 20, 2013 to January 14, 2014.
• One registration = One project
• Participants may submit various projects, but must register each entry.
• There is no limit as to the number of participants per team. Individual entries are accepted.

After your registration has been approved eVolo will send the registration number (within 24 hours), which will be necessary for submission boards.

Schedule

• August 19, 2013 – Competition announcement, registration begins, acceptance of questions.
• November 4, 2013 – Deadline for submitting questions.
• November 19, 2013 – Early registration deadline
• December 2, 2013 – Answers to questions posted on website
• January 14, 2014 – Late registration deadline
• January 20, 2014 – Project submission deadline (23:59 hours US Eastern Time)
• March 17, 2014 – Winners’ announcement

Submission Requirements

This is a digital competition and no hardcopies are necessary. Entrants must submit their proposal via email no later than January 20, 2014 (23:59 hours US Eastern Time) to the following email address: skyscraper2014@evolo.us. Participants can send their entries through hightail.com (free) or similar if the files exceed 10mb or their email capacity.

The project submission must contain the following files:

1. Two boards with the project information including plans, sections, and perspectives. Participants are encouraged to submit all the information they consider necessary to explain their proposal. These boards should be 24″(h) X 48″(w) in HORIZONTAL format. The resolution of the boards must be 150 dpi, RGB mode and saved as JPG files. The upper right corner of each board must contain the participation number. There should not be any marks or any other form of identification. The files must be named after the registration number followed by the board number. For example: 0101-1.jpg and 0101-2.jpg.
2. A DOC file containing the project statement (600 words max). This file must be named after the registration number followed by the word “statement”. For example: 0101-statement.doc.
3. A DOC file containing the entrants’ personal information, including name, profession, address, and email. This file must be named after the registration number followed by the word “info”. For example: 0101-info.doc.
4. All the files must be placed in a ZIP folder named after your registration number. For example:  0101.zip

Jury

Wiel Arets [principal Wiel Arets Architects, dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture]
Wiel Arets is a Dutch architect, theorist, urbanist, industrial designer, and the dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture in Chicago, USA. He studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology, graduating in 1983, and founded Wiel Arets Architects in the same year. From 1995-2002 he was dean of the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, where he introduced the idea of ‘progressive-research’ and co-founded the school’s architectural journal named HUNCH.

Benjamin Ball [principal Ball-Nogues Studio]
Benjamin Ball worked at Gehry Partners and Shirdel Zago Kipnis while studying at the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Upon graduation, he sought work as a set and production designer for films as well as music videos and commercials with such influential directors as Mark Romanek and Tony Scott. In his current collaboration with Gaston Nogues, Ball is exploring the intersection of architecture, art, and product design.

John Beckmann [principal Axis Mundi]
John Beckmann founded award-winning architecture firm Axis Mundi in New York City in 2004. John is the recipient of a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and was awarded a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 2010. He edited and contributed to the book The Virtual Dimension: Architecture, Representation and Crash Culture (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998), one of the first books dealing with the implications of digital technologies on the fields of architecture and design. He has been a visiting critic at Yale School of Architecture, Pratt Institute, NJIT, and Parsons The New School for Design.

Mark Goulthorpe [principal dECOi Architects, HypoSurface Corp, Zero+, SMArchS]
Mark Goulthorpe is an Associate Professor at MIT Department of Architecture. He is currently Head of the new Design Stream in the SMArchS program. Current research centers on robotic fabrication and a variety of composite fabrication methodologies. Mr. Goulthorpe has two published books: Autoplastic to Alloplastic by Hyx/Pompidou, articulates via design projects the shifts in design methodology occasioned by digital technologies; and The Possibility of (an) Architecture by Routledge theorizes the broad implications of a digital paradigm for architecture.  Mr. Goulthorpe has received multiple awards including Emerging Voices from the Architectural League of NY, Design Vanguard by Architecture Record and the FEIDAD Award.

Michael Hensel [principal AKNW + NAL, professor at Oslo School of Architecture]
Michael Hensel is an architect, researcher, educator and writer. He gained his PhD at the University of Reading and is professor for architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design where he directs the Research Center for Architecture and Tectonics. He was founding member of OCEAN (1994), founding chairman of the OCEAN Design Research Association registered in Norway (2008). Previously he taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (1993 to 2009), where he co-directed the Emergent Technologies and Design Program (2001 to 2009).

Jeffrey Inaba [principal INABA, professor at Columbia University]
Jeffrey Inaba is principal at INABA and the founding director of C-Lab, a think tank at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, which studies urban and architecture issues of public consequence. The lab’s ideas are broadcast through Volume Magazine, where Inaba is the Features Editor, and in numerous publications including World of Giving (2010). Before starting INABA, he was a principal of AMO, the research firm founded by Rem Koolhaas and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. In addition to being a faculty member at Columbia, Inaba has taught at UCLA, Harvard and SCI-Arc. He received Master of Architecture with Distinction, MA in Philosophy of Architecture and Master in Design Studies degrees from Harvard University, and an AB from University of California, Berkeley.

Lisa Iwamoto [principal IwamotoScott Architecture, professor at University of California Berkeley]
Lisa Iwamoto is a partner at IwamotoScott Architecture, a San Francisco based practice committed to pursuing architecture as a form of applied design research. Ms. Iwamoto received her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from University of Colorado Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Currently, Iwamoto is Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at University of California Berkeley where she authored the book: Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques.

Greg Lynn [principal Greg Lynn FORM, professor at University of Applied Arts Vienna, University of California Los Angeles, Yale University]
Greg Lynn was an innovator in redefining the medium of design with digital technology as well as pioneering the fabrication and manufacture of complex functional and ergonomic forms using CNC machinery. Greg is the Ordentlicher University Professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He is a Studio Professor at UCLA’s school of Architecture and Urban Design and the Davenport Visiting Professor at Yale University. Greg graduated from Miami University of Ohio with degrees in both architecture (Bachelor of Environmental Design) and philosophy (Bachelor of Philosophy) and later from Princeton University where he received a graduate degree in architecture (Master of Architecture). He received the American Academy of Arts & Letters Architecture Award in 2003. In 2001, Time Magazine named Greg Lynn one of 100 of the most innovative people in the world for the 21st century. In 2005, Forbes Magazine named him one of the ten most influential living architects. In 2008, he won the Golden Lion at the 11th International Venice Biennale of Architecture. In 2010, he was awarded a fellowship from United States Artists.

Frashid Moussavi [principal Frashid Moussavi Architecture, professor Harvard University]
Frashid Moussavi is principal of Frashid Moussavi Architecture and Professor in Practice at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). She was previously co-founder of Foreign Office Architects (FOA), recognized as one of the world’s most creative firms. FOA received the Enric Miralles Prize for Architecture, six RIBA Awards, the Venice Architecture Biennale Award and the Charles Jencks Award for Architecture. Farshid Moussavi trained at Harvard’s GSD, University College London, and Dundee University. She has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Architecture Association, the Berlage Institute, Columbia University, Princeton University, and University of California Los Angeles. She is the author The Function of Ornament (2006) and The Function of Form (2009).

Gaston Nogues [principal Ball-Nogues Studio]
Gaston Nogues is an honors graduate in architecture from the Southern California Institute of architecture. He worked at Gehry Partners where he was immersed in product design and production and became a specialist in creative fabrication. In his current collaboration with Benjamin Ball, Nogues is focused on fabricating what they visualize.

Marcos Novak [director transLAB at University of California Santa Barbara ]
Marcos Novak is the director of University of California Santa Barbara’s transLAB and Department Vice Chair. Marcos is a pioneer in the field of virtual architecture. In the mid 90s, his contribution to international architectural discourse was further expanded by the coining and definition of the term “Transarchitectures” His approach: “we conceive algorithmically (morphogenesis); we model numerically (rapid prototyping); we build robotically (new tectonics); we inhabit interactively (intelligent space); we telecommunicate instantly (pantopicon); we are informed immersively (liquid architectures); we socialize nonlocally (nonlocal public domain); we evert virtuality (transarchitectures)”. He received the Masters of Architecture at Ohio State University in 1983. Since that time he has taught at Ohio State, University of Texas Austin, the Architecture program at UCLA, the Digital Media program at UCLA, and the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena.

Kas Oosterhuis [principal Oosterhuis-Lénárd, professor at Delft University of Technology]
Kas Oosterhuis is professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, as well as director of Hyperbody and the Protospace Laboratory for Collaborative Design and Engineering. His teaching and research is in the areas of interactive architecture, real time behavior of buildings and environments, living building concepts, collaborative design, file to factory production and parametric design. Kas Oosterhuis studied architecture at the Delft University of Technology. Afterwards, he taught as unit master at the AA in London. In 1989, he founded Kas Oosterhuis Architekten in Rotterdam (renamed to Oosterhuis Lénárd, or ONL, in 2004). Since 2000, Oosterhuis has been professor of digital design methods at the Delft University of Technology.

Derek Pirozzi [architectural designer Oppenheim Architecture + Design, first place 2013 eVolo Skyscraper Competition]
Derek Pirozzi is a 2012 graduate from the University of South Florida School of Architecture and is the 2013 eVolo Skyscraper Competition first place recipient. A young and determined architect, Mr. Pirozzi was the recipient of multiple nominations and awards during his collegiate career for his design portfolio and masters research project. Recently spending 6 months in Seattle, WA as an intern for Olson Kundig Architects, Mr. Pirozzi now works for Oppenheim Architecture + Design in Miami, FL.

Tom Price [principal Tom Price]
Tom Price is an innovative artist and designer, specializing in modern furniture products, sculpture installation and lighting design. A London native, Price attended several renowned schools including the Royal College of Art, London Metropolitan University and Bath College of Higher Education. Since then, Price has had his work featured in several venues including galleries in San Francisco, California and Hamburg, Germany, in addition to receiving numerous design awards.

Ali Rahim [director Contemporary Architecture Practice, professor at University of Pennsylvania]
Ali Rahim is the founding director of Contemporary Architecture Practice (CAP) and professor of design at the University of Pennsylvania and has previously served as the Zaha Hadid Studio visiting professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the Louis Kahn visiting design professor at Yale University and visiting design professor at Harvard University. Ali Rahim holds a Masters Degree in Architecture from Columbia University and has authored and coedited Catalytic Formations (2011), Turbulence (2011), Elegance (2007), Contemporary Techniques in Architecture (2002), and Contemporary Processes in Architecture (2000).

Fernando Romero [principal FR-EE]
Fernando Romero is one of today’s most relevant international architects. A graduate of Mexico’s Universidade Iberoamericana, Romero is an alumnus of Rem Koolhaas, with whom he worked at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in the Netherlands from 1995-2000. Fernando founded in 2000 FR-EE Fernando Romero Enterprise. Fernando’s strong research background has lead to the publication of several volumes, notably Translation (Actar, 2005), Hyperborder (Princeton Architectural Press, 2007), and Simplexity (Hatje- Cantz, 2010). He has won numerous awards, including the Honorary Fellowship by AIA – American Institute of Architects, the Bauhaus Award (2004/2005) and Mexican Society of Architects Award (2009). Romero has lectured at Columbia University.

Craig Scott [principal IwamotoScott Architecture, professor at California College of the Arts]
Craig Scott is a principal at award-winning firm IwamotoScott and received his Master of Architecture degree with distinction from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University. Craig Scott is currently an associate professor of architecture at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He has previously taught Harvard University, Syracuse University, Southern California Institute of Architecture, the University of Michigan, and Yale University.

Nader Tehrani [principal NADAAA, professor and department head at MIT School of Architecture and Planning ]
Working on interdisciplinary platforms, Nader Tehrani’s research has been focused on the transformation of the building industry, innovative material applications, and the development of new means and methods of construction– as exemplified in his work with digital fabrication. As the founding principal of office da, Tehrani’s work received many prestigious awards, among which included the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award. Tehrani is also a professor and the head of the department of architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.

Ben van Berkel [principal UNStudio, professor at Staedelschule in Frankfurt, Harvard University ]
Ben van Berkel studied architecture at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the Architectural Association in London, receiving the AA Diploma with Honours in 1987. In 1988 he and Caroline Bos set up an architectural practice in Amsterdam, extending their theoretical and writing projects to the practice of architecture. The Van Berkel & Bos Architectuurbureau has realized, amongst others projects, the Karbouw office building, the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, Museum Het Valkhof in Nijmegen, the Moebius House and the NMR facilities for the University of Utrecht. In 1998 Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos established a new firm: UNStudio (United Net). UNStudio presents itself as a network of specialists in architecture, urban development and infrastructure. Current projects are the restructuring of the station area of Arnhem, the mixed-use Raffles City in Hangzhou, a masterplan for Basauri, a dance theatre for St. Petersburg and the design and restructuring of the Harbor Ponte Parodi in Genoa. With UNStudio he realized amongst others the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, a façade and interior renovation for the Galleria Department store in Seoul and a private villa up-state New York. Ben van Berkel has lectured and taught at many architectural schools around the world. Currently he is Professor Conceptual Design at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt am Main and was recently awarded the Kenzo Tange Visiting Professor’s Chair at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Central to his teaching is the inclusive approach of architectural works integrating virtual and material organization and engineering constructions.

Carol Willis [director Skyscraper Museum, professor at Columbia University]
Carol Willis is the founder, director, and curator of The Skyscraper Museum. An architectural and urban historian, she has researched, taught, and written about the history of American city building. She is the author of Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), which received an AIA book award and was named “Best Book on North American Urbanism, 1995″ by the Urban History Association. She has written introductions to numerous monographs and collections and has appeared in numerous television documentaries and radio broadcasts. Ms. Willis is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Columbia University where since 1989 she has taught in the program The Shape of Two Cities: New York and Paris in The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning.

Dan Wood [principal WORK Architecture Company, professor at Yale University]
Dan Wood received his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters degree from Columbia University.  Wood has taught at Princeton, the Cooper Union, Columbia University, Ohio State University and the Berkeley School of Environmental Design, as the Friedman Distinguished Chair. He will join the Yale School of Architecture as the Louis Kahn Chair in the fall of 2013. Wood is originally from Rhode Island and has lived in Paris and for many years in the Netherlands before moving to New York in 2002.  He is a licensed architect in the State of New York.

Regulations

1. This is an anonymous competition and the registration number is the only means of identification.
2. The official language of the competition is English.
3. The registration fee is non-refundable.
4. Contacting the Jury is prohibited.
5. eVolo Magazine, as the competition organizer, reserves the right to modify the competition schedule if deemed necessary.
6. Entrants will be disqualified if any of the competition rules are not considered.
7. Participation assumes acceptance of the regulations.

Awards

• 1st place – US $5000
• 2nd place – US $2000
• 3rd place – US $1000

Winners and special mentions will be published in several print magazines including eVolo_08.

Questions and Answers

Who can participate in the competition?
This is an international competition and everyone is invited to submit a project.

Can we submit more than one project?
Yes, but each project must have a unique registration number.

Do we need to submit hard copies of the boards?
No, this is a digital competition. You have to send your boards by e-mail to skyscraper2014@evolo.us.

What is the minimum required height for the skyscraper?
There is no minimum height.

Is there a specific site for the project?
No, each participant decides on the location.

Will there be an extension of the registration and submission deadlines?
No, the registration deadline is on January 14, 2014 and the submission deadline is on January 20, 2014.

Where are the results going to be published?
The best projects of the competition will be featured in several international print and online publications. We will also include them in eVolo 08.

Can we submit our boards in Spanish or French?
No, English is the only accepted language.

Can we submit more than two boards?
No, only two boards will be accepted.

Previous winners have been featured in the following print publications:

ABC Magazine – Czech Republic, About:Blank Magazine – Portugal, Aeroflot – Russia, Architect Builder – India, Architecture and Culture – Korea, Architecture Design Art – Pakistan, Architektura Murator – Poland, AT Architecture Technique – China, Archiworld – South Korea AWM – The Netherlands, Azure – Canada, B-1 – Thailand,Bauwelt – Germany, Blueprint – United Kingdom, BusinessWeek – USA, C3 – Korea, CAAOH – Ukraine, Casamica – Italy, Casas y Mas – Mexico, Concept – South Korea, Courier Mail – Australia, Discover Magazine – USA, Donga – South Korea, Enlace – Mexico, Focus – Canada/Italy, Future Arquitecturas – Spain, Geolino Extra – Germany, Grazia Casa – Italy, Kijk – The Netherlands, L’Installatore Italiano – Italy, L’Arca – Italy, L’Uomo Vogue – Italy, La Razon – Spain,  Le Courier de l’ Architecte – France, Le Fourquet – Mexico, Mark Magazine – The Netherlands, Maxim – USA, Mercedes Benz Magazine – Germany, Mladina – Slovenia, Modulo – Italy, Modulor – Switzerland, NAN – Spain, Natur + Kosmos – Germany, New Scientist – United Kingdom, Oculus – USA, Of Arch – Italy, Pasajes de Arquitectura – Spain, Peak Magazine – Singapore, Popular Mechanics – USA/Russia, Popular Science – USA, Puls Biznesu – Poland, Quo– China/Spain, Rogue Magazine – Philippines, RUM – Sweden, Salt Magazine – The Netherlands, Science et Vie – France, Sciences et Avenir – France, Shanghai Morning Post – China, Space – South Korea,  Spade – Canada,  Spazio Casa – Italy, Specifier Magazine – Australia, SMW Magazine – Taiwan, Stafette – Germany,  Tall Buildings – Russia, Tatlin – Russia, The Broker – The Netherlands,The Outlook Magazine – China, The New York Times – USA, The Wall Street Journal – USA, Time Style and Design – USA, Travel and Leisure – USA, Vida Simples Magazine – Brazil, Vogue - Australia, USA, Vox Design – Poland, Wettbewerbe Aktuell – Germany, Wired – USA/Italy, Woongjin – Korea, World Architecture – China

-> 2014 SKYSCRAPER COMPETITION IS OPEN FOR REGISTRATION

eVolo Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2013 Skyscraper Competition. The award was established in 2006 to recognize outstanding ideas for vertical living. Since then, the publication has received more than 5,000 projects that envision the future of building high. These ideas, through the novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.

In 2013, the Jury, formed by leaders of the architecture and design fields selected 3 winners and 24 honorable mentions. eVolo Magazine received 625 projects from all continents and 83 different countries. The winners were selected for their creativity, ingenuity, and understanding of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities.

The first place was awarded to Derek Pirozzi from the United States, for his project “Polar Umbrella”. The proposal is a buoyant skyscraper that rebuilds the arctic ice caps by reducing the surface’s heat gain and freezing ocean water. In addition, the super-structure is equipped with a desalinization plant and solar powered research facilities and eco-tourist attractions.

The recipients of the second place are Darius Maïkoff and Elodie Godo from France, for their “Phobia Skyscraper”. The project seeks to revitalize an abandoned industrial area of Paris, France, through an ingenious system of prefabricated housing units. Its modularity allows for a differentiation of various programs and evolution in time.

The third place was awarded to Ting Xu and Yiming Chen from China, for their project “Light Park”, a floating skyscraper that takes new development within large cities to the sky. The project allows for a continuous growth of the world’s mega-cities by providing adequate infrastructure, housing, commercial, and recreational areas.

The honorable mentions include several projects that explore a sustainable urban future including a pH conditioner skyscraper that resembles a jellyfish and purifies polluted air or a volcano skyscraper that harvests geothermal energy. Some projects explore new frontiers such as a proposed network of skyscrapers in the stratosphere, a cluster of artificial islands that create the 7th continent in the Pacific Ocean, and nomad skyscrapers that terraform Mars. Other honorable mentions include morphing structures and digital explorations among many more ideas that look into the future of our natural and built environments.

The members of the Jury are: Vincent Callebaut [principal Vincent Callebaut Architectures], 
Giacomo Costa [visionary artist, author: The Chronicles of Time], Julien De Smedt [principal Julien De Smedt Architects - JDS], 
Hernan Diaz Alonso [principal Xefirotarch, Graduate Programs Chair at SCI-Arc], Mathias Hollwich [principal HWKN, founder Architizer], Ed Keller [principal aUm Studio, Associate Dean at Parsons New School of Design], Marc Kushner [principal HWKN, founder Architizer], 
Francois Roche [principal R&Sie(n) architecture, professor at GSAPP Columbia University], 
Roland Snooks [principal Kokkugia, professor at GSAPP Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania], 
Dongbai Song [winner 2012 Skyscraper Competition], 
Tuuli Sotamaa [principal Sotamaa Design, designer at Alessi], Kivi Sotamaa [principal Sotamaa Design, Director at Aalto Digital Design Laboratory, Professor at UCLA], Tom Wiscombe [principal Tom Wiscombe Design, professor at SCI-Arc], Hongchuan Zhao [winner 2012 Skyscraper Competition]
, Zhi Zheng [winner 2012 Skyscraper Competition]

To commemorate the award, eVolo published a collector’s edition of its highly acclaimed book “eVolo Skyscrapers”. The book is a two-volume, 1300-page set with the best 300 projects received during the last years. Only 150 copies are available worldwide.

eVolo Skyscrapers Collector's Edition Book

eVolo Skyscrapers Collector's Edition Book

First Place
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Derek Pirozzi
United States

During the last decades of global warming, the polar ice caps have experienced a severe rise in temperature causing the northern and southern ice shelves to become thin, fractured, and melt into the ocean. Rebuilding the arctic layers is the primary objective of this proposal which cools down the Earth’s surface by reducing heat gain in vulnerable arctic regions.

The Polar Umbrella’s buoyant super-structure becomes a statement for the prevention of future depletion of our protective arctic region. Through its desalinization and power facilities, this arctic skyscraper becomes a floating metropolis equipped with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research laboratories, renewable power stations, dormitory-style housing units, eco-tourist attractions, and ecological habitats for wildlife. A series of these structures would be strategically located in the most affected areas.

Salt water is used to produce a renewable source of energy through an osmotic (salinity gradient power) power facility housed within the building’s core. In addition, the structure’s immense canopy allows for the reduction of heat gain on the arctic surface while harvesting solar energy. The umbrella’s thermal skin boasts a series of modules that are composed of a polyethylene piping system that pumps brackish water. Finally, the Polar Umbrella also regenerates the ice caps using harvest chambers that freeze the ocean water. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Place
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Darius Maïkoff, Elodie Godo
France

The Phobia Skyscraper is a new form of modular suburban residential development for Paris, France. It is located over the “Petite Ceinture”, a former industrial site with excellent views of the city and an extensive transportation network.

Two main ground slabs and an empty tower structure, constructed of recycled industrial materials, hold prefabricated units that are stacked to utilize the same plumbing system but are rotated to open to outdoor spaces. The units are grouped around outdoor common green spaces.

These common areas, or “nuclei centers,” are equipped with displays that provide real-time feedback for residents on societal issues within the community, occupancy rates of the structure, and messages. It also contains water-collection equipment and solar power panels.

Despite its solid skeleton, the Phobia Skyscraper and its modular units are designed to evolve as does society itself. Its materials are the byproducts of abandonment and recycling; the building itself could be abandoned and once again revitalized, depending on the desires and needs of its residents. Read the rest of this entry »

Third Place
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Ting Xu, Yiming Chen
China

The rapid increase of population within the major cities around the world has led to poor development and serious urban design problems, including the lack of infrastructure, housing, and recreational areas. In Beijing, a large portion of the historic center has been demolished.

One way to make scarce green and recreation space available to residents of this crowded city is a skyscraper that floats above the land, taking new development to the sky. The Light Park stays afloat thanks to a large, mushroom cap-like helium-filled balloon at its top, and solar-powered propellers directly below. Programmatic platforms that host parks, sports fields, green houses, restaurants, and other uses are suspended from the top of the structure by reinforced steel cables; the platforms fan in different directions around the spherical vessel to balance its weight. These slabs are also staggered to allow for maximum exposure to sunlight on each level.

Translucent solar panels cover the top of the vessel to power the uses below, and water collectors, also located at the top, direct precipitation towards filters that send clean water throughout the structure.

Though it doesn’t completely solve Beijing’s serious traffic and overpopulation problems, the Light Park can return valuable green space to the public, and also help mitigate the pollution that comes with increased development – with parks and plants floating in the sky above the city, the air is partially cleaned. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Julien Bourgeois, Olivier Colliez, Savinien de Pizzol, Cédric Dounval, Romain Grouselle
France

Energy is one of the major concerns of our current society. Today sustainable architecture seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings by enhancing efficiency and moderation in the use of materials. Noise is part of our urban environment and our everyday life and it is one of the most prevalent pollution form in cities, but it is also an important source of energy not valued yet.

The soundscraper takes advantage of city noise pollution by capturing airborne sound and converting it into usable energy. One of the most abundant energy sources is ambient motion. Vibrations can provide plentiful energy, and can be transferred through many media, making this form of kinetic energy very useful.

The Soundscraper is located next to main transport infrastructures, mostly outside city centers where noise pollution is at it maximum. Motorway junction, railway hub represent no man’s land in the urban territory and areas of greatest efficiency to produce energy . Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Mingxuan Dong, Yuchen Xiang, Aiwen Xie, Xu Han
China

As technological innovative and higher latest skyscrapers can be, they still need to rely on the support to the ground. So a higher heights usually means more unstableness as well as weaker capacity to resist disasters.

The project proposes a mega hex grid that evolves around the earth circumference at a stratosphere heigh, the principle that support this hypothesis is that it seem to be that in a building the larger the span is, the scale and the unstableness will proportionally increase. But if the span is large enough within the scale of the earth, the unstableness brought by the size decreases inversely. In this case the network of buildings and bridges connected to each other, covering the entire circumference of the earth, will no longer need structural ground support and can be suspended in the air by the effect of the earth gravity. The elevated bridges and buildings that relate the grid can reach any height with out worrying about overturning, earth-quakes, floods and any other natural disasters.

The earth needs to find a environmental balance. As human over-used the resources the earth is being heavily damaged, eventually approaching to a point in which the earth will be unsuitable for human living. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Hao Tian, Huang Haiyang, Shi Jianwei
China

The outbreak of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, since 1750, unavoidably brought severe environmental pollution. The most explicit consequence is the Acid Deposition caused by waste of large-scale industrial production.

Produced by the fossil fuel used in abundance, as well as the heavy traffic and industrial production, the SO2&NOx drives the PH value of atmosphere under 5.6. Gradually precipitating to the surface of the earth, these acidic materials have caused great harm to plant, architecture and human beings.

The project aim to use a gentle way to manage Acid Deposition and eventually turn pollutants into available resources (reclaimed water & chemical fertilizer) for the region of Chongqing.

The project is set to be 200-300m high where acidic pollutants gather. The aerocyst filled up with H2 at the top of the building provides buoyancy to it. The porous membrane attached to the air bags can absorb the acidic materials, like acid fog, collect and put them into core purifier where neutralization takes place with alkaline substance produced by nitrogen-fixing microorganism via biological action, which is stored in the purifier center. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Woongyeun Park, Jaegeun Lim, Haejun Jung, Karam Kim
United States

The Skinscape project was inspired from the idea that the natural environment modifies architecture as time passes by and in some instances nature even reclaims it. For example, Banyan trees now cover the Angkor Wat Temple in Cambodia built in 12th century. Experts have decided not to remove the trees because they now serve as part of the structural system – building and nature have become one. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2013 Skyscraper Competition

Antonio Ares Sainz, Joaquin Rodriguez Nuñez, Konstantino Tousidonis Rial
Spain

The global increase in population, its concentration in cities, and the development of emerging countries lead to a big increase in energy need. The Earth has undergone dramatic climatic changes, which have been linked, by a large consensus, to greenhouse gases (GHG). The concentration of GHG in the atmosphere directly affects the global temperature, with potentially global, dramatic consequences. Without any doubt, it is indispensable to define an objective of maximum emissions, in order to limit problems in the future in the Earth.

The Project Nomad goal is to change the atmospheric and soil chemistry of Mars to make it hospitable for human colonization. Read the rest of this entry »