Honorable Mention
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Xuekui Liu, Yashu Chen, Liyu Ai, Hao Wang, Jialu Xu
China

Economic development has changed the appearance of the earth, but also put it in misery. This triggered our thinking: Is development and the ecological environment contradictory? How to make the relationship between humans and nature become “symbiosis” instead of “parasitic”?

The historic mission of Smokestack
Starting from the invention of the steam engine, mankind slowly entered the industrial society and their life has unprecedentedly improved. As a symbol of the industrial revolution, factory smokestack has brought prosperity to human society, as well as many environmental and climate problems. The conflict between human development and nature is particularly intense in developing countries. The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2030 there will be more than 50,000 active coal power stations and millions of factories in the world, of which 85% of the energy is still fossil fuels. The substances produced by the burning of fossil fuels can cause – global warming, air pollution (London smog episode, Smog alert in China), and water pollution.

Smokestack: Symbiosis
Symbiosis is a mutually beneficial relationship between two different species in nature. Providing energy and materials, the Symbiosis skyscraper is attached to the chimney, which can also absorb harmful substances. In the beginning, the Symbiosis Skyscraper only needed a 3D printing ring, and the printing materials were completely provided by burning waste and plant fibers, starting from the bottom of the smokestack and spiraling up and printing around. With the growth of Symbiosis Skyscrapers, its ability to absorb harmful substances produced by smokestacks has continued to increase, reducing smokestack emissions. When it reaches its final form, the factory smokestack will no longer emit harmful substances and achieve “carbon neutral”. At the same time, the waste heat generated by smokestacks is used to create nature greenhouses, purify the surrounding air, and turn the smokestack into a symbiotic building that merges with nature. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Xiaoguang Chen, Jinting Sui, Xufeng Tai, Xiaotong Ma, Bai Lig
China

In China, Urban sprawl and overdevelopment have led to serious urban problems. There are crumbling building blocks in the middle of the city. At the same time, with the encroachment of land, a large number of local cultures, animals, and plants disappeared. In this era with the economy as the core, what is worth pursuing, what kind of future city symbol — “skyscraper” will be? We take the unfinished buildings, the product of urban sprawl as the carrier, Through modular customization, lightweight recyclable materials are assembled in factories into boxes of varying sizes，and implant the personalized space with culture as the theme that meets the needs of contemporary society. These boxes are based on the cost control requirements of the development timeline. Hanging on the traffic core one after another. A large one-time investment in traditional construction is avoided. Each box records the cultural changes of the city, and the building continues to grow with people’s more importance attention to culture. Through the reuse of the unfinished buildings in the city, this project solves the problem of resource waste caused by developers’ wrong judgment of future urban construction. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Shuaijie Li, Yueming Lin, Qian’er Pu, Jiajing Wang, Jinda Liu
China

Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and this proportion is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. Living in these high-density cities, the cost of renting a house is ridiculously high and does not meet the standards of the general low-economy groups, resulting in the extremely poor quality of life for the low-economy groups.

In an attempt to solve this problem, Urban Parasitic System proposes using the existing space in the city center to provide a livable possibility for the low and medium economic groups parasitic in the megacities. This design chose to hang various architectural spaces between the buildings as the main concept of the design. The existing high-density city is improved by “parasitizing” the design space on the existing skyscraper space. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Xinran He, Yiqiao Wang
China

INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of 2020, not only China but also the whole world was overshadowed by a severe biohazard caused by a new type of coronavirus.

Recalling our past, it is not unfamiliar that plagues invaded the human world: The Black Death, 1918 Flu Pandemic…Millions were lost before the disasters were called The Great Mortality. Moreover, there were always many more people infected than the dead, which would cause severe deficiency of hospital bed arrangement, leading lots of infectious patients out of containment, and would, in turn, result in even more infection.

Take the 2019-nCoV for instance: the People of China didn’t wait fruitlessly, Mount Fire God Hospital and Mount Thunder God Hospital were built within only 10 days. Thousands of workers were mobilized in no time, hectares of sites were leveled, and three thousand beds were finally ready for patients…

Within these 10 days, however, the number of patients grew rapidly from 549 to 11177. Only a quarter of them can be hospitalized, others must stay in indoor public areas like stadiums, exhibition centers with thousands of patients together without any isolation—a humble environment does no good to their health. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Shulong Ren, Hongrui Lai, Chang Liu
China

With the rapid development of the global economy and the increase of urban population in the recent 100 years, especially in recent decades, many high-density areas with skyscrapers have appeared in most cities around the world. Hong Kong is one of the typical. But with the continuous development of the city and with the problems of aging and disrepair of structures or backward functions., many high-rise buildings are facing the reality of being demolished and reconstructed. However, there are many difficulties in the demolition of skyscrapers in dense urban areas nowadays. The first is technological, the cost is a high and heavy degree of difficulty. Besides, the impact on the urban environment is large, the waste of resources is serious and it has a great impact on the lives of the surrounding population and the surrounding economy. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

HANNAH Architecture Group
Jalal Salek Zamankhani, Masoud Nimehforoush, Gholamreza Yari Bostanabad, Hussein Aghoushi, Shabnam Jalali Khosroshahi, Aylar Naghizadeh, Faegheh Pourachabalaei
Iran

Tabriz city was traditionally known for its lush gardens and natural surroundings. Excessive exploitation of natural resources on one hand, and mass urbanization, on the other hand, demolished a vast majority of these gardens and left this city as a mere industrial zone.

The Flourishing Platform Skyscrapers project aims to revive the traditional image of Tabriz city as a city-garden. Each platform consists of one central sponge core which is connected deep into the confined aquifers within mount Eynali. These core sponges absorb water from the earth and feed the vegetation planted on the platform. In order to enhance the absorbing functionality of the core sponges, Potassium polyacrylate could be used which is considered a super absorbent polymer.

In addition to providing a sustainable method for planting a wide variety of trees and vegetation, this concept contributes to the hiking culture in this city. These bridged platforms not only invite city dwellers to plant their own desired vegetation and trees but also provide straightforward access to a mountain peak and allow citizens of any age and disability to come together and enjoy their hiking experience.

Some of these platforms are enclosed in order to have the ability to function in extreme weather conditions and allow researchers to investigate rare types of plants. The entire parts of this mountain skyscraper have the ability to be covered by flora within three years. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Fanbo Zeng, Jianhua Lei, Bisheng Hong, Zhaoshan Huang, Yi Zhu, Yushan Xie
China

WHAT IF A LARGE BUILDING COULD BE CREATED IN SECONDS?
With the development of society, the requirement of architecture is getting higher. Human beings pursue faster construction, larger building scale, and more diverse space. When the technology develops to a certain level, how can architecture form on a larger scale with complex spaces in lesser time? The proposal assumes that in the future, large-scale buildings can be triggered by long-range missiles. In such a process, a large number of materials solidify to form a series of spaces spontaneously. The project aims for a manifesto of a megastructure by the explosion with three main characteristics. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you have a BIC ballpoint pen? Almost everyone does! It is the most famous and best-selling pen in history. About 60 pens are sold every second. Its success relies on its affordable price point, reliable ink refill, and worldwide availability.

California pen company ēnsso just unveiled a premium, yet affordable pen for all classic BIC ballpoint refills. The pen is machined from solid bars of space-grade aluminum and natural brass. The lightweight aluminum version is anodized in matte black for an understated and elegant aesthetic while the brass edition is heavier and offers a more tactile experience.

Both pens are exclusively available on Kickstarter for $29.

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Wang Yuchen
China

The Concept of the skyscraper is to provide a building complex for the heaviest disaster area combining the research and rescuing function towards viruses because the virus is still one of the most difficult problems of human beings.

The colossal structures should not serve as a symbol of Maintenance of life and health, but also provide quickly aid the area in the city where new outbreaks of the epidemic situation are happening. The small box packages are prepared into the core generator of the building and transported on the corridors, assembling to be a single first aid kit holding the medicine or a makeshift hospital accompanied by doctors, ready to be dispatched. When needed, they can fly anywhere to rescue the patients. After finishing the tasks, they can fly back to the holes of the building to be recycled and share the data they collected. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Gidich + Sepúlveda Architecture
United States

In a modern world inundated by an extensive sea of technological apparatus, often artifacts and resources available in abundance to the population are obliterated from people’s minds.  Its ubiquity along with its ancient discoveries turns many other methods of usage into obsolete practice.  Cannabis is most certainly one of the world’s best natural resources, yet its consumption continues to be highly and mainly focused on recreational smoking.  Similar to the obsolescence of cannabis purposes are immense building marvels.  Initially designed and engineered with one purpose at hand when they were constructed, however never repurposed as the time evolves.  The Empire High-Rise takes a dive into all the opportunities cannabis has to offer, whilst seamlessly merging the contingencies of repurposed spaces and programs to one of New York’s most iconic hallmark pieces of architecture, The Empire State building. Read the rest of this entry »