Honorable Mention
2016 Skyscraper Competition

Changsoo Park, Sizhe Chen
United States

Air-Stalagmite is a high-rise designed to emerge in the most polluted areas in the world. This project recognized the environmental problems originated after the Industrial and Technological Revolutions – two centuries of a very high consumption of natural resources around the globe.

This skyscraper serves two functions. First as a beacon that acknowledges an extremely high pollution problem. Second, it is designed to filter contaminated air and capture suspended air particles. A gigantic vacuum placed at the bottom of the building sucks polluted air to be cleaned by a series of air filters located on the higher levels. The particles are then accumulated and used as building material to further construct the skyscraper. Each filament on the building’s façade represents a year – a similar concept to tree trunk rings.