Honorable Mention
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Xiangyu Zhang, Jingwei Tang, Qiuyuan Yang, Linxiao Li, Pengfei Li
China

The Mekong River is the river of life in Laos which is the only inland country in Southeast Asia. Khone Falls is the largest waterfall in the world, which provides an important financial resource for local fishermen. In the rainy season, the waterfall brings an abundant variety of fishes which only clusters around the rapids of the Khone Falls. It is not only hard but also dangerous for fishermen to catch fishes there. In the dry season, the water flow is almost dry, which shuts off the supply of fishing on which its economy depends. Fishermen can only build bamboo dams and ropes that are used for fishing in the rainy season. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Johannes Schlusche, Paul Böhm, Raffael Grimm
Austria, Germany

A fair distribution of resources is the basis of a well-functioning society. Pipelines seem to be an important part of such a distribution in the context of energy, but are always the focus of political conflicts and often encounter local dislike. A densely developed pipeline network with its infrastructure is an important requirement for the global economic system based on oil trading. The climate crisis we are currently facing must be reason enough for us to rethink these systems to get independent of oil and gas, which at the same time requires the development of new ideas for the reuse of these pipelines.

The European continent has a vast network of existing oil and gas pipelines like the transalpine oil-pipeline which connects the Italian seaport Trieste with Germany, special the metropolitan area of Munich. It is 470 kilometers long and has a dimension of 100 centimeters each tube. The network primarily serves to supply the refineries in southern Germany but is also connected to other metropolises in Europe via the extensive infrastructure. The towers are designed to be connected to this specific distribution system for alternative use of the pipelines. New systems for renewable energy generation have been known for a long time, but finally, they have to be implemented on a large scale. Decentralization and focus on resources in the respective areas should be in the foreground. Algae as energy resources are in their beginnings and are seen as high potential. Extensive research work has dealt with algae as an energy source in recent decades. As a biofuel, they are up to 6 times more efficient than e.g. comparable fuels from corn or rapeseed. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Yahia Ahmed Yahia Kheder
Egypt

It doesn’t require many fires or many people to deforest a whole country over a certain period of the earth’s life. Deforestation drivers are; human impacts through deforestation, overexploitation, promotion of faster-growing tree species, clear cut forestry, improper management, air pollution, animal grazing, and many more (Euforgen).

There are different cases of countries used to be much more wooded and now become among the worst examples of deforestation. Basically, the soil is exposed in parts, then it starts washing away or blowing away. That is what we see in a very large part of many countries. Seeing those trees setting out there dead in the landscape without having money to do something with the land becomes a global challenge.

This proposal aims to maintain the evolutionary potential of forests’ trees. To support growing more forests and better forests, and to make the land more productive and more able to tolerate the pressures we put on it. Moreover, increasing forestry in developing countries raises people’s living standards and improves life’s conditions. Through providing firewood, food, building materials, shelters, and increases the potential sustainable green stack for the solar biomass. Read the rest of this entry »

2021 SKYSCRAPER COMPETITION

eVolo Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 Skyscraper Competition. The Jury selected 3 winners and 27 honorable mentions from 478 projects received. The annual award established in 2006 recognizes visionary ideas that through the novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.

The FIRST PLACE was awarded to METHANESCRAPER designed by Marko Dragicevic from Serbia. The project is a vertical city-district in Belgrade that serves as landfill with recycling capabilities.

The recipients of the SECOND PLACE are Klaudia Gołaszewska and Marek Grodzicki from Poland for the project AIRSCRAPER. This proposal envisions a city-like skyscraper that cleans air of heavily polluted urban settlements.

CREATURE ARK: BIOSPHERE SKYSCRAPER designed by Zijian Wan, Xiaozhi Qi, and Yueya Liu from the United Kingdom received the THIRD PLACE. The project is a nature reserve skyscraper with research facilities.

The Honorable Mentions include an ice dam skyscraper that prevents further melting of the ice caps, a wooden skyscraper that pushes the boundary of the use of timber in vertical structures, and a horizontal skyscraper for the US-Mexico border among other innovative projects.

The Jury was formed by Melike Altınısık [Founder and design principal Melike Altınısık Architects], Vincent Callebaut [Founder and design principal Vincent Callebaut Architectures], Marc Fornes [Founder and design principal THEVERYMANY], and Mitchell Joachim [Co-Founder and design principal of Terreform ONE].

First Place
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Marko Dragicevic
Serbia

Abstract
Basing its foundations on the outlines of the Belgrade city, the new infrastructure generated on the left bank of the Danube river aims to establish a balance in hypothetical context of environmental and social imbalances by forming a new socio-industrial element in the form of a new city district. This new urban structure, District 3, can be defined as an anticipated context of overpopulation and mass urbanization, where the complex of vertical landfill systems serves as a response to the ever-growing amounts of disposable waste, shortage of natural resources and usable space, transforming informal Belgrade structures into the mechanism of material, economic and societal recycling. Read the rest of this entry »

Second Place
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Klaudia Gołaszewska, Marek Grodzicki
Poland

The task of adapting cities to the impacts of air pollution is of great importance – megacities with their dense population, high traffic congestion and increasing CO2 emissions face major air pollution problems. Beijing is an alarming example of this problem. On certain days the city becomes nearly ‘uninhabitable’ due to dangerous levels of pollution. Around 1 million premature deaths per year, is a clear manifestation of this. Can architecture solve or help to alleviate the problem? Can we take one step further from Le Corbusier’s house as a machine for living, towards the skyscrapers as a machine for survival? Read the rest of this entry »

Third Place
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Zijian Wan, Xiaozhi Qi, Yueya Liu
United Kingdom

At multiple times in history and over different periods, the blue planet successfully breeds diversity of species at every inch on land and has experienced a level of natural climate change variability. The complex components of the ecosystem are undergoing constant changes, while a dynamic balance is getting harder to maintain. Seeing the latest period of rising global surface temperatures is without precedent indecent years, as well as the conflictive relationship between human activity and habitat degradation, the conservation of wildlife should not be ignored. In general, the entire ecosystem on earth is experiencing a hard time. If society continues the current trend of apathy, we are doomed towards a very bleak future. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2019 Skyscraper Competition

BKV Group
United States

Titled “The Vertical Sustainable City,” the supertall skyscraper concept is an expression of the opportunities and constraints urbanistic contexts present to architects. Juxtaposing the idea of a sprawling, urban development, the vertical shape of the tower is a direct response to minimizing the structure’s footprint. The ground floors house commercial areas framed within a vertical mall concept, with a Food Production area directly above where residents and visitors are treated to a vertical, urban farm. Traditionally, agriculture is trucked into cities from rural areas, but this tower posits a farm-to-table experience where food can be grown, harvested, and consumed on-site in a single, vertical structure. Having access to the vertical farm are residences in the upper half of the tower that also feature access to drone landing pads. There, electric and solar-powered drones can dock at or near the elevated housing units – taking traffic off the congested street-level, and into the air. Rising to the very top of the tower is the Office Area, arranged around wind turbines generating energy, reducing the tower’s carbon footprint, and creating water collection systems for the farming, living, and working programs. En masse, the Vertical Sustainable City creates a holistic live/work/play environment for urbanites, effectively responding to the context and elements impacting modern-day cities. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2019 Skyscraper Competition

Zhichen Gong, Yong Chen, Tianrong Wu, Yingzhi He, Congying He
China

Background
The world is witnessing the highest level of displacement on record. According to UNHCR, by the end of 2016, 65.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, and human rights violation. That was an increase of 300,000 people over the previous years, and the world’s displaced population is still at a record high. Also, during the year, 10.3 million people were newly displaced and the speed of new displacements was equal to 20 people every minute.

Under such circumstances, how to resettle the innocent people in war, not only by providing temporary camps, but also by enabling them to continue their lives in familiar environments and maintain normal function of society is the project of the propose. Read the rest of this entry »