2021 Skyscraper Competition
Editors’ Choice

Raymond Yoo, Yejin Park, Angela Yeom
New Zealand

Water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to Amazon basins, but it is a highly problematic invasive species outside its natural habitat. Lake Victoria is one of many places damaged by water hyacinths. Such changes have been putting the people in a difficult situation, especially as Kenya is dependent on Lake Victoria in terms of food and economy.

Another issue the country is facing is health problems due to poor indoor air quality. An average indoor air pollution stylus survey of Kenyan households in 2017 showed that it was three times higher than the standard WHO gave. This can lead to bronchial problems and, in extreme cases, even cause death. In households without electricity and clean gasoline, coal, wood, and kerosene are the main sources of fire. The small particles that blow out from cooking enter the lungs, causing problems. As is the case, if more households are supplied with electricity, more people will be able to cook in a better environment. Read the rest of this entry »

2021 Skyscraper Competition
Editors’ Choice

Lee Geon Yong, Lee Ji Won Yong, Moon Sang Woo
South Korea

A vicious cycle of poverty and environmental destruction In the year 72, Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, said, “Poverty is the most serious source of pollution among all the sources of pollution.”

Poverty exacerbates the environment and environmental pollution exacerbates poverty. Nature is the only resource that poor people can have: trees provide nesting and firewood, and lakes and rivers provide food and drinking water.

However, the resources continue to deplete and get destroyed as their activities for survival continue. The environment continues to get destroyed due to logging and high concentrations of coal combustion, but they have no choice. For them, nature is just a refuge for survival, not a subject of protection.

Tondo, Philippines, is one of the world’s three major slums. In 1954, the government of Manila announced this place as a garbage collection site. The poor who came to Manila to make money sold garbage in Tondo and continued their livelihoods, forming villages in the vicinity. All kinds of garbage piled up, making them vulnerable to odors as well as viruses. In addition, the pollution flowed into the river, which created a barren environment. Residents who cannot afford their need for living, use water from polluted rivers while living in a densely populated place with poverty at the statistics of about 65,000/km2 (1.2-2m2 per resident). Read the rest of this entry »

2021 Skyscraper Competition
Editors’ Choice

Camille Rabany
United States

A skyscraper is a testament to the human capacity to physically manifest our values. With this in mind, the Invisible Skyscraper aims to offset the carbon emissions of the cars driving along park ave with the creation of a carbon-absorbing park. It will accomplish this by placing vehicular circulation below ground to make way for a carbon-absorbing park on the street level. By placing the roads underground, a hierarchy can be implemented with different speeds and greatly improve traffic.

The average car emits 411 grams of C02 per mile. The average tree absorbs 48 pounds of co2 per year. This implies that, in a single minute, one tree can absorb approximately 0.5 grams of C02. The total footprint of the invisible skyscraper stretches from park avenue down to the Manhattan bridge. it is 7.8 miles long. Along with said footprint, there is the potential to plant 41,200 trees, each absorbing 0.5 grams of c02 per minute. This would create an offset of 20,600 grams of co2.

Taking the average car emission into account along the 7.8 miles, this would accrue to 3205 grams of potential c02 emissions at any one moment during a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam. Park Avenue has six lanes, so the total potential emission equals 19234 grams of C02.

Having the roads below ground will, in turn, reduce the numerous other pollutants of cars. The pedestrian senses will be freed of noise, odor, visual strain, physical danger, not to mention the taste of gasoline in the air.

Replacing each of these with the positive attributes of a park; the song of birds, the smell of flowers, the calming effect of greenery, etc… Moreover, it will bring the streetscape back to a human scale, a pedestrian speed. Slowing down the physical and visual references could, in turn, reduce anxiety.

The benefits of this carbon-neutral solution would have a positive impact that reaches all the way to the sky. Thus, it is the invisible volume, free of pollution, infused with the positive attributes of a park, that defines the skyscrapers’ reach. Creating an invisible field of positive energy. Reclaiming the street for pedestrians, reducing pollution, creating environments we want to live in, all the while solving traffic issues. Read the rest of this entry »

2021 Skyscraper Competition
Editors’ Choice

Jiahui Yao, Peng Zhang
China

Nowadays, many big cities are facing economic transformation. Cities that once relied on industrial production are now moving factories out of urban areas and expanding the proportion of tertiary industry. This makes many factories face demolition. A chimney is one of the most representative factory buildings. It is usually an important landmark in an area and can give people a strong sense of place. And the chimney is the representative building of the specific developmental stage of the city, which can make the citizens better understand the development process of the city, and make people feel the change of the city times is linear, rather than sudden, which can provide people with a good sense of belonging. However, the abandoned chimney is no longer valuable. In order to regenerate the chimney, it must be endowed with new functions, so that it can continue to serve the city in the future. By transforming and reorganizing the main body of the chimney, and combining it with the function modules that can be industrially mass-produced, the abandoned chimney can be turned into a skyscraper that matches the new urban environment. Read the rest of this entry »

2021 Skyscraper Competition
Editors’ Choice

Jinsong Xian
China

Nuclear-contaminated water sources have caused environmental issues since Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was destroyed by a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in March 2011, and the radioactive sewage is produced during the process of cooling disused nuclear power plants. Under the influence of the earthquake and tsunami, the operating equipment and cooling system of the nuclear power plant have been completely destroyed. In order to avoid the meltdown of this nuclear power plant, workers have continuously poured water into it to cool the core for the past ten years. In fact, the water used for cooling will attach a large amount of radionuclide after being injected into the core; therefore, those water cannot be reused. After preliminary nuclide purification, the radioactive sewage which has basically been purified will be stored in water tanks, but the tritium element in it is still difficult to be removed. By 2020, the amount of sewage in all water tanks has exceeded 1 million tons, and this figure is still increasing dramatically. Nowadays, a large amount of sewage containing tritium elements urgently needs to be properly treated. Read the rest of this entry »

First Place
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Andrii Lesiuk, Mykhaylo  Kohut, Sofiia Shkoliar, Kateryna Ivashchuk, Nazarii Duda, Mariia Shkolnyk, Oksana-Daryna Kytsiuk, Andrii Honcharenko
Ukraine

One of the main goals of the project is to grow a living skyscraper on the principle of sustainable architecture.

The building will function in the middle of a grey megalopolis and solve a number of important environmental and urban issues.  By analyzing the active process of urbanization and a decrease in the percentage of green spaces as a phenomenon that provokes a number of environmental problems.

We believe that by integrating genetically modified trees during the stage of their growth and development into architecture, we can restore the balance between the digitalized megacities and the Earth’s resources, which are gradually depleted.

A skyscraper tree is a separate living organism with its own root system, irrigation, care mechanisms, and features of development focused on its adaptation to use in architecture. It is a group of unique fast-growing and tall hardwood deciduous trees, which are planted in groups in specially prepared soil (to obtain resources) and in the process of their growth from a unique architectural volume.

The plant absorbs water and nutrients, which are distributed from root to tip. At the same time, the growth of the trunk circumference will gradually increase the strength of the wood structure and improve its self-supporting properties. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Place
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Amit Deutch, Roni Dominitz, Tamar Kerber
Israel

The Lluvioso groundwater refilling facility is a mixed-use high-rise structure designed as a response to Mexico City’s variable water-related issues such as flooding, water shortage, and their side effects. The solution we examined in our project utilizes the high-rise altitude to gather rainwater and refill the city’s groundwater supply.

This field of high-rise structures spread out over the city’s flood risk areas, at a height of 400m, would harvest rainwater using an external membrane layer detaching from the building’s facade. The external layer consists of 10 wings, anchored to the main structure at a height of 100m in order to allow the city’s future vertical growth. Thus, resulting in a 600m diameter rain-water collecting Canopée covering a typical city quarter. The collected water would then be directed down into the aquifer as well as upwards towards a pendulum water tank (for self-use). This proposal seeks to reduce flood damage, fill the aquifer and enhance the water supply for the city’s residents. Read the rest of this entry »

Third Place
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Xiangshu Kong, Xiaoyong Zhang, Mingsong Sun
China

Hmong in China is an ancient nationality, mainly living in Yunnan province. Hmong has its own language, architecture, and lifestyle. However, this group of special minority cultures is being gradually swallowed by modern culture. Many Hmong cultural customs have disappeared, and even many Hmong people’s houses have been demolished or will be.

In order to build a well-off society in an all-around way, the Chinese government has issued relocation policies to the villages to help the Hmong stay away from their dilapidated places of residence and move to the suburbs of cities to provide a modern and affluent life. Although the original intention of the government is good, more and more ethnic minorities are unable to adapt to the new places of residence. They miss their arable land, yards, streams, and so on. We try to design a skyscraper. We try our best to keep farmers’ memory and lifestyle of their original hometown, and at the same time let them enjoy the convenience of modern urbanization. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Alina Kandyba, Emil Stefansson, Josefin Antus, Karl Östvall
Sweden

Up in the Squair is a re-imagination of the skyscraper as a vertical continuation of urban space; a proposal focused on the experience of the user exploring the dynamics of spaces, derived from elements found in historic city centers.

The context where the skyscraper first arose is recognized by its strict grid plan; wide avenues to fit traffic, not much room for adaptations, nor irregularities and asymmetries. The skyscraper could be seen as a reflection of this context following a grid plan logic but vertically with orthogonal circulation; a common idea of rationally moving from point A to point B unifies building with the site.

When the skyscraper was introduced to Europe it faced a more complex situation. A present history and an architectural dominance exclusive to culture, state, or religion. And as a result, instead of becoming the core of the city, like New York or Tokyo, the skyscrapers of Europe tend to be either erected in districts planned for the matter, like Le Défense in Paris, or in the historic center where old structures are demolished to give space for the skyscraper, like City of London’s financial district. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2021 Skyscraper Competition

Lee Jae Uk, Kim Ji Hoo
South Korea

Water shortage
The African government has invested heavily in education, agriculture, and medical facilities for the development of the country, but has not been able to produce clear results. Increasing demand due to rapid urban growth resulted in the overabundance of the water resources system, and poor management of resources, weak long-term investment and research on the environment, and a lack of infrastructure led to many natives’ dependence on relief.

Ironically, the average annual precipitation in Africa results in average annual rainfall of 1,000 to 2,000 mm. Nevertheless, the reason why water is always suffering from a lack of water supply facilities infrastructure to collect and store rainwater. The climate of Africa is divided into dry and rainy seasons. In the rainy season, there is a lot of rain to flood, but this rain is not used and flows into the groundwater.

The minimum amount of water a person needs to survive is 7 liters per day. Urban areas with water facilities can easily be supplied with water, but Africans in rural areas who do not receive a minimum supply of water spend 16 hours a day growing water, and they will never dream of agricultural water. Lack of drinking water and agricultural water worsened their health.

Lack of water and sewage treatment facilities
In Africa, where sewage treatment facilities are not available, people solve feces and urine on the streets and it seeps into the ground.  pathogens are preserved on the ground. One way for Africans to get water is to grow contaminated water from digging. This water also worsens their health.

Sponge
The Sponge is a water circulation collection housing for residents in rural areas who can use groundwater due to discharge and collect rainwater in rainy seasons. Read the rest of this entry »