Second Place
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Dennis Byun, Harry Tse, Sunjoo Lee
New Zealand

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and global oil spill have been accumulating in the Pacific Ocean for decades. In recent years, the effects of this environmental disaster have become increasingly visible, with reports of dead marine life washing up ashore with stomachs full of plastic waste.

While many efforts are underway to reduce plastic waste and oil spills, such as recycling programmes and the use of biodegradable plastics, we propose a bold new idea that takes plastic recycling to new heights.
The skyscraper would be a shining example of innovative and sustainable architecture that addresses the problem of plastic pollution while also promoting biodiversity and wildlife conservation. The building’s exterior facade would be made entirely of recycled plastic sourced from ocean waste. But the true innovation of this idea lies in repurposing rubbish into reinforced plastic as a new building material. The once hazardous small plastic bits will be moulded into a solid structure you can no longer consume or entangle, instead inhabit. Thus re-creating a safer environment for sea animals and nature.

The tower is designed to move with the rubbish gyres (garbage patches) to collect and recycle its content. The movement of the gyres is primarily driven by ocean currents and wind patterns, so the organic facade and curved tower will naturally shift with the current if positioned near any major rubbish gyres. All the rubbish is sorted and taken to a material factory to be repurposed in the construction of the tower. The tower works in tandem with time, with the continuous construction of the plastic bird nesting tower and the cleaning of the ocean allowing a new mass breeding of once-endangered marine life. Read the rest of this entry »

Third Place
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Ahmad Hafez, Hamzeh Al-Thweib
Germany

The Amazon Rainforest, a vital component of the global ecosystem, produces 20% of the world’s oxygen through its photosynthetic processes. Sadly, it has been facing a rapid decline in biomass and biodiversity in recent years, largely due to human activities such as “Slash and Burn” tactics employed by loggers and cattle ranchers, facilitated by government policies that prioritize economic development over conservation. While climate change is a contributing factor, the majority of the destruction is due to human actions. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Anissa Le Scornet, Andrea Battistoni
United States

In 2050, there will be 400 million people living in cities in Africa, representing one of the biggest urban challenges of our time. In its 2022 report WWF lists the impacts of plastic pollution in the African context. The health of both humans and wildlife is threatened by the exposure to toxic emissions and the ingestion of plastic elements. The ecosystems are endangered as fields and fisheries get invaded by micro-plastics. Urban floods caused by the blockage of waterways and urban drainage systems as well as a loss of tourism because of waste filled beaches impact the economy. People are specifically suffering from it in Africa because the waste management systems are often inefficient. It is worth mentioning that some western countries also send their own waste to be buried in landfills in Africa. Institutions and associations urge Africa to fill the policy gaps and establish a common vision on plastic pollution management at a continental scale. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Yang Xiaopeng
China

On February 24, 2022, on the orders of President Putin,Russia suddenly invaded Ukraine. The world was shocked by the war , and most countries condemned Russia. The war launched by Russia quickly killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians. All parts of Ukraine were full of blood, tears and broken families. The casualties caused by the war have rapidly exhausted Ukraine’s medical resources.

Lack of medical resources is just one of the problems,and the other is the transportation of the wounded.It is not easy to transfer the wounded in the war,the closer the hospital is to the front line, the worse the medical facilities are. If we want to rescue the seriously injured, we have to transport the wounded to the hospital in the far big city. The artillery shells and the damaged roads make the evacuation of the wounded dangerous and slow, which makes many of the wounded finally die.

In the face of a large number of wounded in the war, the best way to alleviate the shortage of medical resources is to build a modular temporary hospital, which can be built in a very short time.In the face of transferring the wounded , according to the graded treatment system for the wounded in the army, the seriously injured should be sent to the rear hospital by helicopter for rescue, while the slightly injured should take the ambulance. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Artha Krisiantara
Indonesia

Covid 19 taught us many things and opened our eyes that conventional farming has so many drawbacks. When there was an explosion of COVID-19 cases, farmers who had adjusted their yields to match market needs became silent and watched as their orders disappeared suddenly due to the policy of limiting activities that occurred in a short time. The effect was real, millions of tonnes of produce wasted as farmers struggled to turn around quickly.
As we know, world conditions are currently increasingly apprehensive. The impact of the previous COVID-19 situation and the increasingly heated geopolitical situation between countries has an impact on tensions in the food supply chain which risks threatening the world with mass starvation at hand. In this regard, vertical farming has shown promise in helping to overcome this perhaps imminent crisis by providing decentralized farming centers, higher yields, and separation from climate effects through environmental control systems. Then the question is, how effective and ready is vertical farming to take on this big responsibility in the midst of the current energy crisis and the possibility of depleting energy sources in the future? Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Chang Han, Cheng Qian, Yuxiao Yang, Rangrang Pei, Youjia Jiang
China

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is the largest city in Africa, located in the south of the Nile Delta and is one of the four birthplaces of human civilization. Since the 1860’s, Cairo has adopted the French urban design plan, and the city has entered modern society with the ancient color of the Middle Ages. It is a city with the integration of ancient culture and modern civilization, oriental style and western style.

Cairo is one of the most populous cities in the world. Due to the expansion of population size, the problem of urban water shortages is becoming increasingly serious. According to statistics, Cairo’s population density reached 19300 people per square kilometer in 2022. Most areas of Egypt have a tropical desert climate, with little rain and large evaporation. The desert area accounts for approximately 95% of the national territory. Ninety percent of the total urban water resources in Cairo come from the Nile River, with a per capita water resources of 560 m². Cairo has become one of the most water-scarce cities in the world. Excessive population density, shortage of water resources and serious shortage of agricultural area have become the most restrictive factors for Cairo’s urban development. Therefore, we urgently need to create a new method and model to comprehensively solve the urban problems in Cairo. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Fang Huo, Xinxuan Li, Bingjie Wang, Qining Zhang
China

The design scheme uses the unique strong wind conditions of Mongolia to spread grass seeds, so as to solve the desertification problem of Mongolia and restore the natural ecology and national economy of the country. The plight of Mongolia stems from the vicious cycle of nomadism, overgrazing and lack of green space. The lack of pastures has led to many people losing their jobs and being forced to work in the capital, thus exacerbating the problem of population distribution in the country. The wind seeder we designed uses the acceleration principle of Laval nozzle, which can increase the wind speed by 10 times only by changing the cross section, so that the seeds can be sown on the land 1 km away. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Haoru Dai, Weitong Zhao, Zhengzheng Wang, Tianjiao Li, Wenqing Qi, Jiabao Chen
China

With the rapid development of industry, skyscrapers have become a symbol of the internationalization of metropolises. However, there are many inherent problems in the basic system of typical skyscrapers. For example, the lack of use of external space among high-rise buildings, the lack of diversity of interconnection, and many defects and hidden dangers gradually exposed in safety, health and environmental protection, coupled with the rapid lifting of elevators, led to dizziness, nausea and other “superhigh-rise building syndrome”, which cooled down the “high-rise fever”.

Due to a single architectural form, a large number of glass curtain walls absorb and reflect sunlight, forming a sun room, and at the same time explode outward, which is very harmful to people. The surge in demand for housing in high-density cities has caused congestion between buildings and brought about the problem of the tidal peak of traffic flow. Faced with the current high-intensity lifestyle, people lack the time to get in touch with nature and the opportunity to breathe. Skyscrapers damage people’s equal access to light and fresh air, and their shadows will prevent healthy sunlight from shining on the low buildings below. Currently, there is an urgent need for a concept that takes into account the diverse needs of economy, life, ecology and safety, actively cracks the “big city disease” and promotes the slimming and fitness of mega-cities to better serve people. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Yuxin Meng, Xiang Li, HaoYi Cui, Wenxi Yu, YiJing Zhang, Weilin Xin, ZiJian Liu
China

Fiji is a tourist-driven island nation in the heart of the South Pacific. Due to tropical cyclones and other natural disasters, Fiji has a shrinking land area where people suffer from inundation, food shortages, employment difficulties, and other problems. “Origami-Scraper”, a place to shelter from tropical cyclones, supply employment, conduct meteorological observation, and even be equipped with habitats for birds, will appear on the sea of Fiji. Under normal circumstances, it will be flat for agriculture and fishery development. Once tropical cyclones appear, it will fold itself for protecting people, birds, and ships from them.

When it comes to the reasons why we chose to shelter from tropical cyclones as our design direction, we noticed that hurricane Ian in 2022 hit Florida causing significant economic losses. Actually, many coastal regions are attacked by hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones and lose a lot of human, material, and financial resources. Especially small islands located in the South Pacific are hit by tropical cyclones almost every year.

But it doesn’t mean being a monotonous project, we gave this idea more functionality. According to Fiji’s popularity in tourism, we chose to build it for Fiji. Fiji is an island nation of approximately 7, 100 square miles in the South Pacific, northeast of New Zealand, and east of Australia, which is affected by severe natural hazards every year. Fiji’s economy is relatively fragile, and its main income comes from tourism. It was hit severely by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which directly led to a rise in unemployment. In addition, Fiji’s net migration rate in the past 50 years has been mostly negative because of rising sea levels and political instability. Read the rest of this entry »

Honorable Mention
2023 Skyscraper Competition

Siyuan Liu, Yuchen Jin
China, United States

Where is the future shelter of humanity？

The ongoing degradation of the terrestrial environment, manifested by the pernicious effects of global warming and the rise in sea levels, has presented a formidable challenge to human survival on our planet. The shrinkage of terrestrial areas, consequent to the inundation of coastal regions, compounds this pressing issue. In light of this impending crisis, humanity has been forced to contemplate alternative avenues for securing its future, including the augmentation of life expectancy and the pursuit of extraterrestrial habitation.

Mars, with its aura of romanticism and enigmatic character, has become the subject of scholarly interest and a viable target for colonization. The hypothesis of terraforming the Red Planet into a hospitable environment for human life, however, remains a matter of contention, given the lack of concrete evidence supporting its feasibility. Nevertheless, the prospect of colonizing Mars constitutes a potential strategy for mitigating the risks posed by the changing environmental conditions on Earth and ensuring the continuation of human civilization in the face of uncertainty. Read the rest of this entry »