Skyscrapers of the Future
Spring 2010

Buy eVolo #02

Interviews with:
Carol Willis
Giacomo Costa

Skyscrapers by:
Herzog & de Meuron
Morphosis
MVRDV
Jean Nouvel
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Skidmore Owings and Merrill
Studio Shift

Essays by:
Brian Ahmes
Marcos Betanzos
Joanna Borek-Clement
Benny Chow
Mario Cipresso
Elie Gamburg
Arvin Garay-Cruz
Mohamed Ghamlouch
Ted Givens
Maryana Grinshpun
Mathias Henning
Reinaldo Leandro
Andrew Liang
José Muñoz-Villers
Chad Porter
Maria Prieto
Javier Quintana

2009 Skyscraper Competition:
30 most innovative projects

Aranda / Lasch:
Recent work

Editor’s Letter
by Carlo Aiello

It has been a tremendous satisfaction to compile this issue about the past, present, and future of the skyscraper. No other architectural genre captures our imagination and reflects our cultural and technological achievements like these towers that pierce the sky. We start off with the history and evolution of building high, from the Egyptian pyramids, Gothic cathedrals, and first American skyscrapers to the contemporary reality in Asia and the Middle East.

We present two fascinating interviews, the first one with Carol Willis, the founder and director of the Skyscraper Museum in New York City, who explains the true genetics and economics behind the birth and future of the skyscraper. The second one with Italian artist, Giacomo Costa, who shares his vision about “the relationship between the natural environment, human activity, and supernatural reality” with provocative images of an apocalyptic urban future.

Javier Quintana exposes the time gap between new architectural concepts and their built reality – like Arne Hosek’s “City of the Future” designed in 1928 and materialized in 1998 by César Pelli as the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or Sergei Lopatin’s 1925 idea for the Veshenka Tower in Moscow, later observed as the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) in Chicago in 1974.

Another group of essays explore the global influence of Manhattan as a contemporary Babylon to be replicated across the world, or the role of the Italian Futurists, Japanese Metabolists, and Archigram, who influenced generations of architects and designers to push forward the concept of vertical living.

In the ‘Opinion’ section you will find critiques on some of the latest ideas for skyscraper design by some of the most forward-looking architects – like the concept of pixilated tectonics in Le Project Triangle in Paris by Herzog & de Meuron and Rodøvere’s Sky Village by MVRDV. On the other hand, Jean Nouvel redefined the Italian loggia towers of the seventeenth century with the Tour Signal in La Défense, Paris; while Morphosis Architects explores new programs for vertical density with The Phare Tower. Lastly, Studio SHIFT masterfully integrates their Miyi Tower in Sichuan, China, with the existing landscape.

Central to this issue are thirty projects from eVolo’s 2009 Skyscraper Competition which look into the future of the skyscraper with the use of new technologies, programs, and aesthetic expression. Sustainability, globalization, flexibility, and adaptability are just some of the multi-layered elements explored by some the entries. You will find examples of cities in the sky, horizontal skyscrapers that link various cities, or emergency architecture for disaster zones.

Finally, we present the work of Aranda / Lasch, a young New York-based design studio which develops their research on the observation of the patterns of organization in the natural world and its implementation in architecture and design. Their “Quasi-Series” furniture is designed following the assemblage logic of Quasi-crystals, where a structural pattern does not repeat itself.

We would like to acknowledge our readers for their encouraging letters and e-mails that we have received over the last months. It is our mission to continue discovering and promoting new talents and to present a new wave of architecture that will undoubtedly transform our world.

eVolo- to study, to develop, to evolve, to fly away…

Buy eVolo #02

Pixilated Tectonics
By Elie Gamburg

eVolo 02 – Skyscrapers of the Future
Spring 2010

eVolo 02 - page 27

eVolo 02 - page 28

eVolo 02 - page 29

eVolo 02 - page 30

eVolo 02 - page 31

eVolo 02 - page 32

eVolo 02 - page 33

eVolo 02 - page 34

eVolo 02 - page 35

Housing for the 21st Century
Fall 2009

Editor’s Letter
by Carlo Aiello

It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to the premier issue of eVolo. This architecture and design journal was initially conceived in 2004 by a group of graduate students at Columbia University in New York City. Following graduate school, inspired and idealistic, many of us felt the need to reach further and look more closely at ourselves and our specific strengths to figure out what we could uniquely contribute to the field of architecture. Unfortunately entering the work force revealed a scary truth; the world of architecture is a tough place, making little room to accommodate all the unique contributions that so many brilliant young architects were so eager to make. This, specifically, is the inspiration for eVolo; to provide a forum for showcasing the most innovative, the most avant-garde designs that will define architecture in the twenty-first century.

So I introduce to you, eVolo, a work in progress with a clear mission, but no other rules. We have in mind a desire to examine the relationship between architecture and the natural world, architecture and the community, architecture and urban living; but this is an open investigation, welcoming all questions with a willingness to entertain any and all possible answers.

As a part of our mission, in 2006 we created the annual Skyscraper Competition, whereby architects, students, and designers shared their ideas about the future of the skyscraper. The outcome was extraordinary, and in 2008 we published a book with the most innovative projects of the last three years. In September of 2009, there will be an exhibition in New York City to display the brilliance that was uncovered by this competition, brilliance and creativity beyond what we had imagined. Such investment in the work, such innovation, such freedom of thought and expression – we feel confident that there is endless creativity just waiting chance to shine.

So we hope you enjoy the first issue – Housing for the twenty-first century is what we have chosen, and have made it a collaboration between thinkers from diverse fields attempting to understand our current habitation necessities; an exploration of where we are and where are we heading. We start off with the analysis of the economic, social, and architectural causes and consequences of the largest and fastest migration event of human history; the exodus from rural to urban China.

‘Opinion’ is a collection of essays on the broad topic of housing, reaching broadly, from discussions about the use of new technologies, ecology, and global warming, to the transformation of a house into another ‘member’ of a family. This section also includes a reflection on the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright and his architectural sensibility to make house and context one single entity. In this section you will also find critiques on some of the most forward-looking housing projects designed by world-class firms such as Steven Holl Architects, Asymptote Architecture, Herzog & de Meuron, Bjarke Ingels Group, and Office for Metropolitan Architecture.

Central to this issue are the winning projects of the 2007 Housing Competition organized by eVolo, which consists of twenty proposals that, through the use of new materials, technology, novel spatial organizations, and combinations of programs, present a glimpse of the possible world to come. You will find examples of underground housing, the regeneration of existing neighborhoods, the exploration of new aesthetics from mathematical algorithms, and the studies of biogenetic materials used for environmentally responsive claddings.

The final section spotlights a young firm of designers known as Nervous System, who are producing an ingenious jewelry line based on patterns of organization in the natural world. Some of their pieces mimic the growth of coral and other branching structures, while other collections are created with the simulation of particle aggregation and diffusion systems.

The first issue of eVolo is the beginning of a long journey, along which we intend to search and discover, unveil and promote, in a collaborative format that welcomes anyone that wishes to take this journey with us.

eVolo- to study, to develop, to evolve, to fly away…

Urban Refuse Housing & Wall-E
By Mitchell Joachim

eVolo 01 – Housing for the 21st Century
Fall 2009

eVolo 01 - page 62

eVolo 01 - page 63

eVolo 01 - page 64

eVolo 01 - page 65