The concept of this design by Xiaofeng Mei and Xiaotian Gao is based on the deconstruction and restructuring of Bionics as well as the supernatural spirit of re-designing a church.

The idea is based on two starting levels and extraction elements. One is the derivative and evolution of fish’s bone and texture. Specifically, from fish bones, fish gills, fish suko, and other various important parts, I can extract the geometric elements and then sort out the logic of formation of biological body, which would become the primitive of main structure and mode. Second is the religious beliefs of church and spiritual of space. The exploration of the spirit of building is the basic method and necessary mean to study how to combine the modern architecture and ultra-modern architecture together. Read the rest of this entry »

For the purpose of consciously evoking society’s reaction, an architectural object is inserted into the main recreational zone of New York – Central Park Jovile Porvaneckaite. Moreover, social and cultural phenomena inspired by the innovative form are discussed. The aim of the project is to analyse the process of form modelling and, consequently, perform a research of the form as power, based on an experimental project carried out by the author. The article aims at establishing the influence of the volume deficiency formed or shaped in the city’s planning system on the suggestibility of the building’s form.

In the project concerned, the term volume deficiency is used to describe the stress environment in the city structure, formed on the artistic, planning, volume, stylistic, value or historical base, and programming continuity of the above processes after integration of the newly proposed object into the environment mentioned. Read the rest of this entry »

The student housing on rue Amelot designed by Stephane Malka is a project that inserts itself into an urban interstice: the thickness of a blind wall. It’s within the thickness of these walls that this thin building is constructed. The urban form is a strict extension of the blind walls, which houses using the existing. No building is destroyed, and no pollution generated. The skin consists of an existing module: the wooden pallet.

Held using horizontal hinges, the pallets contract towards the top, allowing privacy or large openings. The modularity of the various palettes creates varied geometries, which are based on use and constantly regenerated. The reappropriation of materials recycles the existing without additional processing, which would cost energy in terms of production and create byproduct pollution. Read the rest of this entry »

Epiphyte is a complete self sufficient, modular summer pavilion, created to travel around the world providing its surrounding with a natural aesthetic , explaining modern and ecological building systems in one architectural experience. The pre-fabricated organism is designed to have carbon-zero emissions, collecting energy at daytime using it for media projection at night. It benefits from its green or urban surrounding, while providing a new and interesting space for exhibitions and art installations. The cladding is covered by a TiO2 nano layer of shaped anatase that reacts to ultraviolet rays enabling the reduction of air pollution, cleaning the atmosphere around the pavilion. Read the rest of this entry »

Querkraft Architects, together with the Technical Museum of Vienna, designed a new entrance foyer and shop for the existing building. Older museum buildings are challenged to expand and modernize whilst remaining attached to their existing historical structures. In the 90s the technical museum faced precisely this difficulty as it tried to gain more space for a larger entrance foyer, a new museum shop and café as well as sufficient amenities, cloakroom space and ticketing capacity. The architectural solution that was chosen in the 90s was a steel-glass box placed in front of the existing historical structure. This solution proved problematic on a few levels shortly after the opening in 1999. The foyer was dominated by large temperature fluctuations, poor acoustics and ventilation, as well as less than optimal visitor circulation. Read the rest of this entry »

Located between 1^st and 3^rd district on the Ringstrasse in Vienna, a block of three cultural buildings presents an architectural whole with all parts maintaining their physical autonomy. The buildings are intended to house the content of the Museum for Applied Arts and partly accommodate the University of Applied Arts. Winning the competition for the reconstruction and linkage of the existing buildings, Wolfgang Tschapeller’s design seeks not only to restore the architecture, but also to reinvigorate the urban tissue of the site. Read the rest of this entry »

eVolo Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2012 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. This is also 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. The award seeks to discover young talent, whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.

The Jury of the 2012 edition was formed by leaders of the architecture and design fields including: Maria Aiolova [principal Terreform One], Chris Bosse [principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture], Gaël Brulé [principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition], Julien Combes [principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition], Marc Fornes [principal THEVERYMANY], Florian Idenburg [principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu], Minnie Jan [principal MisoSoupDesign], Mitchell Joachim [principal Terreform One, professor at New York University], Jing Liu [principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu], Daisuke Nagatomo [principal MisoSoupDesign], Alexander Rieck [principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture], Michel Rojkind [principal Rojkind Arquitectos], Michael Szivos [principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute], Tobias Wallisser [principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture], and Ma Yansong [principal MAD Architects] . The Jury selected 3 winners and 22 honorable mentions. eVolo Magazine received 714 projects from all five continents and 95 different countries.

The first place was awarded to Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao and Dongbai Song from China for their project “Himalaya Water Tower”. The proposal is a skyscraper located high in the Himalayan mountain range that stores water and helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the mountains’ natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for future use.

The second place was awarded to Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, and Zihan Wang from China for their project “Mountain Band-Aid”, a design that seeks to simultaneously return the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and work as it restores the ecology of the Yunnan mountain range.

The recipient of the third place is Lin Yu-Ta from the Taiwan for a “Vertical Landfill” to be located in the largest cities around the globe, both as a reminder of the outrageous amount of garbage that we produce and as a power plant that harvests energy from waste decomposition.

Among the honorable mentions there are underwater projects for ocean research, mobile skyscrapers, floating cities, and temporal buildings that attach to existing structures. These proposals offer us an exciting view of the world to come.

eVolo Magazine would like to acknowledge all the competitors for their effort, vision, and passion for architectural innovation and the members of the Jury for their knowledge, time, and enthusiasm during the long review process.

First Place
2012 Skyscraper Competition

Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao, Dongbai Song
China

Housed within 55,000 glaciers in the Himalaya Mountains sits 40 percent of the world’s fresh water. The massive ice sheets are melting at a faster-than-ever pace due to climate change, posing possible dire consequences for the continent of Asia and the entire world stand, and especially for the villages and cities that sit on the seven rivers that come are fed from the Himalayas’ runoff as they respond with erratic flooding or drought.

The “Himalaya Water Tower” is a skyscraper located high in the mountain range that serves to store water and helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the mountains’ natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for future use. The water distribution schedule will evolve with the needs of residents below; while it can be used to help in times of current drought, it’s also meant to store plentiful water for future generations. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Place
2012 Skyscraper Competition

Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, Zihan Wang
China

Industrialization and mining are destroying China’s natural settings, especially mountains, which are excavated to the point of destruction in man’s search for minerals. These processes don’t just devistate regions’ ecologies; they also displace whole populations of people, separating them from their homes and also their means of living, as many in these rural areas work as farmers. The “Mountain Band-Aid” project seeks to simultaneously restore the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and work as it restores the mountain ecology of the Yunnan mountain range.

This is achieved with a two-layer construction project. The outer layer is a skyscraper that is built into and stretched across the mountain. By building the structure into, and as part of, the mountain, the skyscraper helps the Hmong people recover their original lifestyle. It is organized internally by the villagers to replicate the traditional village design they utilized before they were displaced. The building’s placement on the mountain means that its height is mainly determined by the height of the mountain. The design as a whole is one of “dual recovery:” the Hmong people living on the damaged mountain can keep the unique organization of space in their village, recreating it within the skyscraper, but they won’t be contributing to the mountain’s degradation. Instead, they help the mountain’s environmental restoration by recycling domestic water for mountain irrigation. It is this irrigation system that comprises the project’s inner layer: an irrigation system is constructed to stabilize the mountain’s soil and grow plants. Read the rest of this entry »

Third Place
2012 Skyscraper Competition

Lin Yu-Ta, Anne Schmidt
Taiwan

The designer of the “Monument to Civilization” asks you to reconsider what constitutes ‘spectacular.’

Skyscrapers are meant to wow, to impress. But other things within cities are also impressive, the designer says: “New York, for instance: If we put its annual garbage on a area of a typical tower footprint, we’ll get a 1,300 meter high landfill tower, which is about as three times tall as the Empire State Building (450 meters). Isn’t that spectacular?”

As landfill possibilities surrounding growing metropolises disappear and cities fight waste management issues, the power of trash needs to be reconsidered. The accumulation of waste, for example, actually creates potential energy-recycle opportunities, such as when gas is emitted during decomposition. The Monument of Civilization proposal suggests locating trash vertically in a tower and using the energy generated from its decomposition to help power the surrounding city. By locating the tower in the heart of the city, energy is provided in immediate proximity, and money is also saved in transportation costs when garbage no longer needs to be shipped out of town. Read the rest of this entry »