Second Place
2020 Skyscraper Competition
Yutian Tang, Yuntao Xu
United States
The Egalitarian Nature skyscraper imagines a new building typology driven by the human urge for nature instead of capital. It is a new kind of infrastructure conceived to serve the whole society. The traditional skyscraper is reimagined as a mountain range that provides a new way to experience nature within an urban environment. A zigzag-climbing path is developed along with abstract spaces that encourage an unexpected engagement between people and nature. Accessing the tower is not decided by capital but individual physical strength.
ANOTHER NATURE
This design proposal explores a new possibility of tower typology and lifestyle in a high-density urban environment by rethinking the relationship between humans and nature. In future city planning, the existing free land may not be sufficient for building parks or gardens. However, the need for these areas is imperative and this skyscraper provides the opportunity for large green spaces within a small footprint. The tower is a combination of nature and a man-made environment. It is conceived as a vertical mountain in the center of a city: a mountain for all the people to hike or climb.
AN EGALITARIAN OBJECT
Since the skyscraper was born it has always been an instrument for the privileged. It is an object of power and a symbol of wealth. Air rights have become the new scoring point in the game of capital. The chase of height never stops and this unfair situation will never change until a new type of skyscraper shows up, not driven by capital but driven by nature. This skyscraper offers the entire society a fair opportunity to engage with a new vertical green space. The accessibility will not be granted by financial status but by the physical strength of the individual since there will be no elevators.
FREEDOM OF SPACE
“The distance between man and man which generate the way in which people gather and therefore ‘the place’: if a person is alone the place is a small room; if they are two together it is a larger room; if they are ten it is a school; if a hundred, a theater; if a thousand, an assembly hall; if ten thousand, a city; if a million, a metropolis…” –Superstudio.
Spaces within the skyscraper are in total freedom and flexibility. From one space to another space, from one surface to another surface, there is no difference. Places are only dependent on the distance between humans and their relationship with spatial volumes. The continual human movements and interactions give each space a programmatic meaning.
