Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Golnaz Mayel Afshar, Faranak Momeni Azandaryani
Iran

The skyscraper aims to generate a solution for the unprecedented air pollution in Tehran, Iran by combining several innovative technologies in one. Tehran’s air pollution has been a decade-old issue, which has exponentially increased, in recent years. On average, one person dies of air pollution causes at every two hours, and people have been chocking to death from the air they inhale. The most significant causes of pollution in Tehran are the overwhelming number of vehicles, loose inspection regulations, high immigration from villages into the capital, non-standard gasoline, and most importantly the topography of Tehran. The deep topography is due to the mountains surrounding the city. This has resulted in the air being trapped. The site has been picked in the center of Tehran where the air pollution is the most concentrated and the topography is at its deepest.

With this aim, the suggested skyscraper would create a new chain system between smartphones, pollution, and architecture. The most important factor is the involvement of people in the appearance of the skyscraper and the amount of data received from the people (through their smartphones) to fight pollution. This is done through an app, which syncs in real time with the skyscraper, creating a spatio-temporal system of visual and spatial syncing between pollution and architecture, through the people.

The app provides different services for the exterior and the interior of the skyscraper on smartphones. The facade of the project is equipped with the quantum stealth material technology, which bends light to create invisibility, in accordance with the level of pollution. The data received form the various directions would be translated into the facade of the architecture. The amount of pollution directly affects the visibility of the architecture. The less pollution there is, the less visible the skyscraper would be since it is in a de-activated state. As the amount of pollution starts to rise, the architecture unhides and is activated in order to fight pollution through the diffusion of catalytic converters infused in a capsule. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Jonathan Ortega
United States

Aviation has made the world a smaller place. A century ago it would take weeks to travel across a continent by rail, and months to traverse the oceans by ship; today, travelers can cross an ocean in a matter of hours and circumnavigate the globe in a few short days. As air travel has shrunk the world, however, aviation infrastructure has expanded exponentially. Today’s airports use a massive amount of space for terminals, concourses, taxiways, and runways.  This growth is compounded by the surrounding roads and highways feeding into, out of, and around these sprawling airport complexes. Moreover, airports are often hemmed in by the surrounding infrastructure, limiting future growth and complicating current designs. The use of verticality of structures, while not new, opens up new opportunities for development and expansion of airports into smaller footprints, leaving more available land for green space as well as for other development possibilities.  Future airports can take advantage of verticality to reduce their land use.

Verticality is not just for infrastructure; it is also the wave of the future for aircraft as well. Vertical takeoff and propulsion systems in future aircraft will minimize the need for the kinds of taxiways and runways that are omnipresent in today’s airports. Eliminating or minimizing the use of paved spaces will allow the available land to be used for alterative purposes, from green spaces and parklands to commercial and agricultural development. This reduction in paved spaces will have other benefits as well, including a reduction in the heat sinks seen in today’s cities and other developed areas.  Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

GuoChao Deng, QingMing Xiao, Yuan Feng, Liwei Shen, Qin Xiong
China

Design background
As the population increases and the global aging accelerates, the cities with dense population are facing the problems of fewer graveyard resources. Japan is the country with the highest level of aging in the world. In Tokyo, the capital of Japan, the problem is even worse. Recent research shows that the average age in Tokyo is growing rapidly, with nearly 25% of people over the age of 65. At the same time, more and more rural young residents are coming to Tokyo, which exacerbated the scarcity of resources in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, the price of graveyard in Tokyo is so high that it costs more than 4,000 U.S. dollars per square meter, which is hard to bear for a Japanese citizen. As a result, most poor people cannot afford a graveyard to place their own relics and loved ones.

The significance of building vertical cemetery: to build a place of spiritual comfort for the living relatives
During the time we grown up, we were told the story about the people after death: their sprits rise to the sky, becoming a shining star. They are watching your life, your progress as well as your life-long career, which endow you the motivation to face the challenge. Based on the humane care for the bereaved family members, we are not only building a place to store the remains and ashes of the dead, but also building a place of spiritual comfort for the living relatives. To this extent, they never pass away. Death is not the end of life. Being Forgotten is. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Katarzyna Przybyła
Poland

Water scarcity is currently one of the major issues of the 21st Century. International conflict about Blue Gold has already arisen and is expected only to increase. Nowadays, over one-third of world’s population lives in water-stressed countries. In addition to population growth, it has been reported that another important cause of water crisis is climate change and its impact on the global water system and the environment. Glaciers, as the primary reservoir of potable water, influence global water management and marine currents. Their melting significantly increase water temperature and decrease its salinity. According to the National Oceanic an Atmospheric Administration global temperatures have been increasing steadily for the past 100 years and it is expected to continue to grow. Anticipated increase of only two degrees will cause vast of marine species stop reproducing and eventually vanish forever. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Gorproject
Philip Nikandrov
Stepan Kukharskiy, Aleksandr Muraviev, Ivan Mylnikov, Vadim Zamula, Vladimir Travush
Russia

The UN is warning that melting polar ice due to global warming will ultimately redraw the world map within a century. One of the biggest resulting threats around the world is sea-level rise affecting many coastal megapolises, including Shanghai, Osaka, Alexandria, Saint-Petersburg, New York , London etc., and even devastating overpopulated countries such as Bangladesh. Building our cities vertically seems to be the key to salvation not only for coastal population but also for human civilization in general, as the vertical urbanization is the only way to save the land (main natural resource of the planet) from the plague of expanding horizontal urbanization. Stacking the urban blocks with associated infrastructure, recreation and parkland in a third dimension in multiple tiers and levels can increase the city density without compromising life quality and standards and even improving them at height with fresher air, better daylighting and spectacular views.

Project 1111 is the 1111-metres high sustainable vertical city with over 300 floors stacked in fifteen 20-storey tiers with hanging gardens and parks. Based on hexagon plan with 6 wings attached to spiral hexagon structure it creates the mix of transportation modes, including highways for cars (that can drive up to the top level), vertical transportation (zonal elevators and transiting express shuttles), airborne (copters/drones) and vacuum tube trains.  The 350,000 population at 10,5 million sq.m. of total gross area (or 30m2 per capita – the comfortable living standards for a vertical urban habitat) are accommodated at 1.4km2 land plot. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Zhenjia Wang, Xiayi Li
United States

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is a divergent tectonic plate or constructive plate boundary located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge includes a deep rift valley that runs along the axis of the ridge along nearly its entire length. This rift marks the actual boundary between adjacent tectonic plates, where magma from the mantle reaches the seafloor, erupting as lava, producing new crustal material for the plates and holding the only connection between the separating plates from being apart.

NYC, as a metropolis, has offered so much promise of either career or day-to-day life. Being a hub where millions of commuting workers, local residents, and visitors interact with each other, during the day and at night, providing the city with an energy generated from the exchange of ideas and knowledge through social interactions, Manhattan’s status as transaction-maximizing place is made possible by its remarkable carrying capacity. However, the increasing load of Manhattan prevents people’s residence in this place, challenges local workers’ everyday commute, and makes New York Dream unattainable. Traveling to and from work should be easy, efficient, and allow you to focus on what matters: your job; while, based on a survey, full-time workers in New York City spend about two hours more per week commuting — an average of 6 hours and 18 minutes per week – which is almost like another 8 hours work day. Work longer hours. Spend more time on subways and buses. Can’t even afford to live here. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Yassin Nour Al-tubor, Fawzi Bata, Boran Al-Amro, Yazeed Balqar
Jordan

The city of Detroit has one of the highest crime rates in the U.S, having said that, the U.S.A has 5% of the world’s prisoner population. With people abandoning Detroit after once being an economic hub in the past. The economy of Detroit is crumbling.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, the average annual cost of incarceration in Federal prisons in 2010 was $28,284 per inmate. With inmates being seen as an economic burden to taxpayers, it is logical to rethink incarceration methods in the U.S.A. This is where the idea of production comes into play. The aim is to allow the inmates to serve their jail time while still being a labour force in the economy.

The city of Detroit is going under change, regarding zoning of areas and spaces. With many areas being abandoned, it is useful to think about architecture that is flexible according to volatile economic needs. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Chunyang Li, Shuai Yang, Zhenhang Zhao, Ruize Xiao, Yuequn Wang
China

The earth is full of volcanoes, and the occasional eruption of volcanoes has caused a lot of trouble, and has been accompanied by a lot of energy release. Solving the problem of volcanic eruption and using the energy of volcanoes is the concept of our design. Volcanic eruption is due to the magma underneath the pressure is too large, we through unceasingly magma Wells out of the magma of energy, so, in the magma energy will never reach the state of the eruption.

Obtaining energy through a magma well requires overcoming the following four points. First of all, the depth of the magma well needs to reach five kilometers, which requires a lot of technology. Second, in the process of obtaining energy, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other gases will be emitted, so the building USES green plants such as algae to absorb carbon dioxide and other gases. The third point, the conservation of energy, is the way the building USES energy blocks to solve more volcanic eruptions.

In order to deal with the problem of gas pressure balance and building flight, a special biofilm structure was designed. The air inside and outside can be exchanged through biofilms. It can also be inflated in the middle of the biofilm, and when all the membrane structures are filled with gas, it provides the power to fly the building.

The demand for nature is not unlimited, and when we collect a certain amount of volcanic energy, we fly down a volcano that needs to be governed. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Huy Bui, Howard Mack
United States

In 2017, the Hong Kong tops the world chart with 7687 high-risers and 303 skyscrapers. The city’s verticality is a direct result of its extreme density and land scarcity. According to Civic Exchange the average open space available for each Hongkonger is the size of a coffin or a toilet cubicle (8 sq. ft.) This lack of space is considered to have damaging effects on generations of Hong Kong. In a city of 7 million people, many Hongkongers are being ensconced in tiny enclosed spaces, suspended hundreds of feet above the social realm with nowhere to unwind, express, relax and interact with their community.

How can we provide open space to people in a city that has already been so dense and filled up with skyscrapers? My proposal is an elevated, mega-cluster of open spaces that attempts to span the entire area of the densest neighborhood in Hong Kong – Mong Kok. The aim of this project is to provide Hongkongers in Mong Kok with a network of public open spaces that are highly accessible and multi-functional to compensate for the city’s severe lack of land and cramped living condition.

Hover above the city, the new structure will be supported by the city’s own skyscrapers and high-risers. The core of these buildings will be extended up to serve as structural columns for the new mega-structure. Together with the core, vertical circulation will also be extended up, allowing occupants from these buildings to have direct access to the space without leaving their apartments. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2018 Skyscraper Competition

Baraa Kawasmi, Amal Tatfi
Jordan

Natural resources varies from one place to another, among these is natural stone (rock) used mainly in construction and buildings.  A high percentage of these quarries are spreading randomly in the City of Amman / Jordan in an unstructured manner.  They have become an environmental threat to the city’s urban fabric, which requires to find a solution for this problem. The project will be designed to rehabilitate an old quarry in Amman, by transforming it into a traditional and cultural Mixed-use Skyscraper on the quarry’s site, by transfer this site into an eco-bridge in order to reconnect the parts of the city separated by these quarries.

Introduction
As soon as the quarries are drained, they usually become deserted and neglected.

Abandoned Quarries Impact:

1. Environmental pollution.
2. Influencing the biodiversity.
3. Influencing the shape of the land  .
4. Separating the urban fabric of the city.

Although quarrying is considered to be an unfavorable industry, its importance is unquestionable. We have to deal with these neglected quarries by creating a building or an activity that serves both local community and environment.

Concept of Design
Amman appears as a ‘modern’ urban area, albeit one that also shows distinct traditional characteristics at the local or micro-level. The social transformation of the city over the last years has been no less spectacular.

Therefore, our design represents a noticeable combination of these two aspects of Amman, in the composition, units, materials and community presence. Read the rest of this entry »