Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Spyridon Koutantzis
Greece

Concept & Context
The project’s name – Mediterraneo – derives from its geographical namesake, the Mediterranean Sea, thus signifying a search for locality in an everchanging place. It studies the past of a rich in history area, in the effort to define its future. While doing so, it attempts to cope with the growing “temporal rental housing crisis” the European South is facing with an increasing number of people each year facing eviction, unable to find a home, in a market that favors visitors over inhabitants.

Form
The process of form-finding is a constant dialogue between the past and the future. It studies the vernacular architecture and transcribes its vital elements in the vertical axis. The insular staircase, the small opening, the variability of the pre-industrial built environment, the social interaction. All of the integral parts of the Mediterranean culture are being reimagined in a futuristic way that respects the landscape and creates the place.

Function
The program for the proposed tower is rather simple, not unlike that one of a village. It consists of a well-defined entrance area, a vertical promenade adjacent to which lay the habitable space and a social hub. While the floor plans are indicatory, the structural system offers to the building unique flexibility in terms of use, allowing a bottom-up approach for that matter. On top, lies a lifted social interaction space (plaza), getting abundant light from a glass dome and allowing people to enjoy a scenic view of the surrounding landscape. The boundaries between private and public spaces are blurred, since the promenade itself acts as a daily interaction space as well, communicating with the “front stoop” urban typology. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Yangpeng Xin, Shiyu Fan
China

With the advent of global climate disasters and war conflicts, more and more sea refugees are suffering these every year on this planet. Their homes were flooded by rising sea levels or destroyed by war, leaving them adrift in search of new homes. When they were adrift in the ocean, they may be hit by a hurricane or a huge wave at any time, causing their boat to capsize and lose their lives.

The design aims to solve the survival problems of sea refugees — how to take shelter when they encounter storms and huge waves while drifting at sea. Our inspiration comes from the buoy used in fishing. The buoy stood above the water and would not capsize after the storm. This is because when the slender buoy stood in the water, gravity and buoyancy can maintain a good balance, even if there is a strong external force interference. This is something that we use very well in our design. Traditional lifeboats that serve as safe havens for refugees are still vulnerable to capsizing in storms. If the refugees’ safe haven is a giant buoy, it can stand up in a storm. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Liang Yue, Liu Zimin, Wang Chunxin, Meng Yuan
China

In Sichuan and Gansu mountainous areas, the inhabitable land resources are very scarce, and the alluvial plain along the river is the main gathering place for people. Due to the deforestation and destruction of vegetation, the soil has become sparsely broken, and with the extremely dry and rainy weather in Gansu, the danger of mudslides has always threatened the residents on the plain.

Affected by the 512-magnitude earthquake in 2008, the situation became worse and the soil was looser. In the past ten years, mudslides of different sizes have erupted in the rainy season almost every year. The houses rebuilt after the disaster have been damaged several times, causing huge loss of life and property.

The mountainous land resources are in short supply, and the alluvial plain is the main gathering place for people.The depth of the mountainous terrain ditch, the debris flow erupts along the ditch.The alluvial plains gathered by people are just facing the downward direction of the debris flow. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Chih-Ting Yeh
Taiwan

Each year, 1,000 or more people die in the war because when military conflicts between two or more organizations，including wars and armed conflicts that are taking place through the world and continuing to result in violent deaths. According to the report, Syria affected madly by war afflicts and had mass injuries in the world. So Syria could be the best delivering expansion site during EMS( Emergency Medical Services) due to its central geometrical site.

Normally this hospital provides medical innovation, medication, and education. When war broke out, the purpose of the convertible hospital must be for the sake of peace, save war victims and provide EMS by helicopters and drones during shrinking. We can shrink and transform the building volumes from dividing space into those channels to connect up and downstairs, and create open spaces. it’s making of fire prevention materials and duplicate volumes by plus, rotate and assemble. Using the wooden construction of the traditional burr puzzle to shrink buildings efficiently.  With the transformed prefabricated hospital we can better off displacing war victims and educate those habitats for war areas. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Isra Kamal Khurshed
Iraq

Major types of pollution include air pollution, light pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, and water pollution. Pollution is one of the most serious problems in the world that we are facing now, it consists of chemicals, particles in the atmosphere- most of the substances that come from human activities.

Most of the pollution comes from fossil fuel, greenhouse gases, transportation, and industrial plants, pollution sources will enter the atmosphere then they will be dispersed around the globe, leading to global warming.

The Middle East is suffering from rising in temperature, especially Iraq, the amount of air pollution in Iraq is more than other neighbor countries according to research and accurate data. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Dennis Byun, Sunjoo Lee, Harry Tse
New Zealand

INAAOMATA is a disaster adaptation tower set around the Pacific islands. The tower acts as the last resort to save what is left, which holds important value to the people of Kiribati. It is confirmed that Kiribati will be the first island to sink completely underwater in less than 50 years due to climate change and sea level rising. With these irreversible changes, we have no choice but to adapt and survive.

Alternative survival method has been presented to the Gilbertese to move to a different country and settle down with a different culture and lifestyle. Local elderlies who tooled the culture and sentimental value of their identity and space refused to move to another country. To show the independence of the people and their standing with their culture, the tower is anchored down with a massive dolphin structure in the core to hold everything up, the whole tower floats on the water as the dolphin allows the tower to rise with the sea level. As it’s risen, the tower will be fixed in position until the next rise. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Carlo Alberto Guerriero
Italy

In Africa, in the Sahel regions, the drying of wetlands is proving catastrophic for both biodiversity and the economy of local populations. In fact, the fall in rainfall, exacerbated by the poor management of water by man, is leading to the fight against desertification, and more and more villages are held in the dry grip of the Sahara. All this has pushed thousands of environmental refugees to flee to Europe and caused the emergence of numerous internal conflicts.

Lake Chad is emblematic of the natural and human drama that the Sahel is experiencing. Lake Chad has always been a fundamental habitat for the survival of sub-Saharan populations and an important cultural crossroads. But in just 60 years Lake Chad has lost more than 90% of its surface, currently reaching a size of 2,500 km2, with the forecast of a total disappearance in the coming decades.

To determine such a change, as well as a decrease in precipitation, it was the construction of large dams on the Yobe rivers (in Kano in Nigeria) and Logone (in Maga in Cameroon) the main tributary of the Chari. Both rivers have lost almost 80% of their flow, with the consequent loss of alluvial areas necessary for agriculture, a reduction of pastures and a strong limitation of fishing activities. For millennia the Lake Chad basin has been subject to great variations, but today unlike in the past, about 10 million people survive thanks to the lake. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Abdulkarim Fattal, Baran Akkoyun, Burcu Kismet, Gorkem Kinik, Martyna Katarzyna Duras, Pinar Beyazit, Sena Polatkan
Italy

Nowadays, the human impact on our planet has become the most disputed topic. In fact, every problem related to the biophysical environment, ecosystem, biodiversity and natural resources is accelerating as we continue to grow. Curiosity backfired. Countries, associations and private companies are highly investing in space related topics with an urge to find life on another planet which leads to many serious consequences. We basically pollute everywhere we go, that even outer space is littered with remains of used rockets, satellites fragments and other, which we call “DEBRIS”.

Debris can be referred to either natural debris such as asteroids and comets, or the mass of artificially created objects in space. In fact, space junk is increasingly becoming a problematic issue for both space and life on earth as they can eventually block earth’s orbit in addition to possible damage of solar planets, telescopes, trackers, satellites and other assets orbiting around our planet. Several solutions are proposed to deal with the debris problem, and one of the leading solutions is to recycle these non-working satellites. In fact, harvesting these parts is not an easy procedure. The Universe Tower will allow scientists to develop new strategies using advanced robotics and technologies to perform deeper research in order to bring these parts back home. A replica of the solar system is imagined inside the building, allowing scientists from NASA to have access to all different planets and therefore minimizing the amounts of trips to space. Each planet will have its own labs and experimental zones along with a simulation area, having the exact same conditions and environment, allowing scientists to explore further innovations, only a few steps away. Other technological solutions are proposed and placed at the top of the building, letting a direct treatment of space junk such as the Laser Broom and Space Nets. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Umut Baykan, Doğuşcan Aladag
United Kingdom

Tourism is a socio-economic phenomenon. It enables people to encounter new experiences all around the world. Contributing significantly to the global economy, it benefits local employment figures whilst providing opportunities for cultural exchange. The number of tourists has risen dramatically since 1950: from 25 million to 1.2 billion in 2017. Movement of so many people at seasonally determined periods of time creates massive demand for accommodation. This demand presents a problem across urban and environmental scales.

For the majority of touristic destinations, demand spikes in certain parts of the year. Traditionally, the model has been to build hospitality facilities such as hotels to meet this demand. As a result, they account for a disproportionate percentage of the built environment. Since these facilities are vacant of people and purpose outside of peak season, they are routinely shut down in order to limit maintenance and resourcing costs. Unfortunately, for settlements that are reinvented as tourist destinations, the impact is significant and detrimental. The local economy becomes fragile, the cultural life is undermined, all to the point whereby towns become more like ghost-towns when the tourist season is over. Profit becomes a higher priority than the conservation of local beauty for developers. This attitude is unsustainable, as the quality of the landscape is often what attracted tourists in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

Editors’ Choice
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Dimo Ivanov
Switzerland

Inspiration
Inspired by professor Donald r. Sadoway’s notion of giant container-sized liquid metal battery, Ephemere high-rise proposes the idea of a floating power station and liquid metal battery charging station.

Liquid metal battery
The team of professor sadoway – ambri aims to develop a giant battery that fits in a 40-foot shipping container for placement in the field. And this has a nameplate capacity of two megawatt-hours. That’s enough energy to meet the daily electrical needs of 200 households. Ambri’s cells are strung together within a thermal enclosure to form an ambri core. The ambri core is ‘self-heating’ when operated every couple of days, requiring no external heating to keep the batteries at temperature. The ambri system comprises multiple ambri cores that are strung together and connected to the grid with power electronics. The configuration of the ambri system is modular and can be customized to meet specific customer needs.

Offshore wind, wave and tidal energy
Ephemere high-rise uses 100% renewable energy sources for electricity production. Harnessing energy from offshore winds, waves, and tides holds great promise for our world’s clean energy future. Energy production is just one of the valuable resources our oceans and coastal ecosystems provide. We can successfully develop offshore renewable energy by ensuring that energy projects are sited, designed, and constructed in a manner that protects our fragile ocean ecosystems. Read the rest of this entry »