Limestone Skyscrapers

By:  | March - 26 - 2015

Honorable Mention
2015 Skyscraper Competition

Jethro Koi Lik Wai, Quah Zheng Wei
Malaysia

Limestone hills that are mined are doomed to suffer total annihilation, or become remnance of a souless terrain. This design approach seeks to intervene the process of mining, turning it into a mere “site clearance and earthwork” phase to allow buildings to be erected within, adapting to the sophisticated and ever so beautiful terrain of the karsk topography. These towering natural monuments withstood the tests of time, until humans begin to mine their substances. Mining of these substances not only creates an eye sore, it also increases calamities such as flash floods and landslides. Therefore, it is vital that proper treatment has to be applied upon mining of the natural resources.

Limestone materials have numerous uses: mainly as building materials, as aggregate for the base of roads, as white pigment or filler in products such as toothpaste or paints, and as a chemical feedstock. This in turn, creates a building within a mountain, harnessing the natural resources of existing stones and minerals on site to be used as the construction materials eg. marble, travertine.

The Architecture serves as a compliment to the monolithic beauty in its original state, bringing a different life and purpose to the mining hill sites.

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