Special Mention
2008 Skyscraper Competition

Claudiu Barsan-Pipu, Oana Maria Nituica, Irina Maria Dragomir, Bogdan Nicolae Ispas
Romania

Special Mention

The “genetic” predisposition
The urban structure of the city of Bucharest was designed without a master plan; since its creation, drifting neighborhoods developing around religious centers have defined its urban characteristics. This continuous migration, as well as the poor “circulatory irrigation”, led to a city predisposed to suffer from massive “urban strokes”, both in terms of functional disposition, as well as in the associated circulatory system.

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Special Mention
2008 Skyscraper Competition

Akram Damisi, Ghalia Bisharat, Firas Thalji, Alaa Abdalat, Ashraf Damisi
Jordan

Special Mention

The concept of high density in cities is one that has transformed the modern city. Architecture and technology made the development of towers and skyscrapers just another element of the modern city’s urban fabric, casting large shadows on social life, both literally and metaphorically speaking. The changed urban fabric brought with it a change in urban life. In these cities, crowdedness, pollution, traffic, noise, and crime, have become an everyday experience. The private, single-use, outsized skyscraper brought on a hefty impact on city life. The instinct to climb up to some high place, from which you can look down and survey your world, seems to be a fundamental human instinct. However, while the rest of the urban world lay in the horizontal, the vertical presence in the city became a privilege for a few; a private realm that towered over the urban stage of everyday life. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2008 Skyscraper Competition

Maria Pasavento, Fabio Ferrian, Lara Rizzardini
Italy

Special Mention

MILone is the result of a research begun during the Integrated Design Workshop of Prof. Montuori at IUAV (University Institute of Architecture in Venice).

It is conceived as an outside-in city, located in the near periphery of Milan, and called to be an attraction point of the area, where green, stone paths, wooden relaxation areas and water basins are projected to foster a symbiotic relationship between the natural and the artificial environments. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2008 Skyscraper Competition

Paul Burgstaller, Ursula Faix, Michael Kritzinger
Switzerland

Special Mention

The ‘flyscraper’ is a revolutionary and visionary design proposal for the next generation skyscraper, consisting of flying living units, attached with individual ‘carbon isogrid’ tubes to the ground. In urban areas across the world we see two phenomena: fast growing metropolitan areas, as well as shrinking cities. The ‘flyscraper’ is designed for both: deserted as well as congested urban areas. Moreover the ‘flyscraper’ responds to the existing urban fabric in a very adaptive way, respecting the historical context and heritage landmarks. In addition, the ‘flyscraper’ offers a solution for very dense urban fabrics, making small, irregularly shaped, and usually commercially worthless pieces of land (‘curb property’) accessible and worthy for developments; since only ground for the foundation of the ‘carbon isogrid’ tubes is needed. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2008 Skyscraper Competition

Natalie Ghatan
United Kingdom

Special Mention

The premise behind Urban Mountain is a high-rise geometry that can simultaneously accommodate a vertically-arrayed subsidiary ski community program, along with indoor and outdoor skiing amenities. The project was informed by examination of the modern city and the phenomena of urban densification, as well as analysis of varied sets of parameters and emergent behaviors. Indeed, the evolving condition of the urban quality of life and what measures can be taken to enhance it, are relevant to the Urban Ski Mountain. Taking into account the scenario of an intensified cityscape, with increasing stresses on air quality, open space for leisure, and general feelings of well-being, the importance of these commodities are no longer being taken for granted. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2008 Skyscraper Competition

Tassilo Hager
Germany

Special Mention

The beginning of the 17th Century was the advent for the first trade routes. It was because of its great geographical position, that New York grew fast. After the Erie Canal was finished in 1825, it opened vast areas of New York to commerce and settlement. It was the wind which carried the first ships to this place and it was the beginning of its financial, cultural, and political development. Sailing ships were able to transfer trade goods via the Atlantic to Manhattan, and about the Hudson River to the vast areas of New York. The early historical background of New York is the main idea of this project. To combine the early seafaring with necessary methods to save energy is an important element. It should be a self-sufficient tower, constructed with light metal. The buildings’ envelope should be able to catch the wind. A symbol of the early history of New York, which represents its energy-conscious future. Read the rest of this entry »

1st Place
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Somnath Ray
India

First Place

The skyscraper as a ‘modernist’ invention was a logical conclusion to the desires of a paleo-capitalist society, as an urban landmass approached its critical point of wealth and density of inhabitants. Imagined as a sign of cultural power and ownership, the skyscraper was typified in its ‘classical heroism’ from its logically consequent tabula rasa condition; as a formulation for a utopian blank slate on which a new building is conceived, free of compromise or complication after the demolition of what previously stood on the site. Read the rest of this entry »

2nd Place
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Yi Cheng Pan
United Kingdom

Second Place

The past decades have seen the creation of major cities from scratch, at break-neck speed, through the endless proliferation of Skyscrapers. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dubai, Singapore are mere specimens of such a milieu that is set to perpetuate and grow.The mass production of this ubiquitous and definitive building type, that investors, planners, and government addictively rely on to achieve both market efficiency and the “landmark” effect in any new urban development, clearly exposes the very paralysis and inability of the state to imagine a new city that is not populated by high-rises. Read the rest of this entry »

3rd Place
2007 Skyscraper Competition

José Muñoz-Villers
Mexico

Third Place

Articulating the contemporary European city
“Although it owes much to its heritage in the American skyscraper, the contemporary “Euroscraper” is in need of a new expression, one that provides distance from the modernist orthodoxy of the 20th Century and is a critical response to the ornate and delirious notions of the 21st Century tall building that now proliferate in cities such as Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. The European urban dilemma is that while rightfully holding onto the notion that cultural difference will continue to prevail throughout the European urban landscape, a new economic imperative must somehow become evident and explicit on the global stage.” Hani Rashid

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Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Eduardo McIntosh
United Kingdom

Special Mention

Alternatives to vertical circulation strategies within high-rises
The phenomenon of the “high-rise” can be read as a result of either high concentration of population or as a symbol of power and wealth. In any case, if we put structural issues out of the equation it is clear that the key element that enabled the birth of the skyscraper was the invention of the elevator. Therefore, it is ironic that the elevator is precisely what has totally limited the evolution of high-rise buildings in terms of programmatic and formal alternatives.

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