Geno-Matrix

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Ming Tang, Dihua Yang
United States

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

Inspired by the Lego blocks, the strategy of Geno-Matrix is to do as much pre-fabrication as possible, under controlled factory conditions. Within a modular building system, large quantity of cubic units are fabricated and assembled into a lattice system. These units can be “pulled”, “pushed” or “combined” in the lattice grid along the axis and form infinite typological features. The characteristic of the skyscraper heavily relies on these units’ location and the internal logic between them. The skyscraper is formed by the same building “blocks” that takes on an organization imposed by the social, economic, and culture requirements of the site. Read the rest of this entry »

Parametric Urbanism

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Dominiki Dadatsi, Fountoulaki Elrini, Pavlidou Eleni
Greece

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

This tower is a case study of a larger housing proposal situated in East London that serves as an example of adaptive architecture. Based on ecological systems, the team investigates how an urban development can be explored as a simulation model of natural growth that negotiates and adapts to the existing urban fabric. Borrowing rules and functions from the natural world, such as growth and phyllotaxis, the project is an investigation of parametric development adapting to different urban needs. Read the rest of this entry »

Quantum City

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Sebastien Chauvel
France

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

Thinking about the city in two dimensions means a horizontal spreading of the urban mass, an estrangement of the functions and a loss of social cohesion. The urban scattering creates a waste of energy, space, and resources. The compact urban planning in three dimensions, such as the skyscraper, offers a solution to these problems. Read the rest of this entry »

Ritual Tower

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skysrcaper Competition

Raymond Bourraine
United States

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

The Ritual Towers are multi-purpose structures, challenging wood architecture to produce an iconic and green project. Designed to aid small towns in poverty, the towers are located in the Pentecost Islands.The design generates power and pumps fresh usable water, at the same time it can be used for the Naghol leaping rituals. The iconic shape comes from the idea of energy in the form of a flame. The design is composed by two towers. The first tower is the wind tower, with turbines that generate energy. The second tower is the water tower and reservoir. Read the rest of this entry »

Chimera Skyscraper

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Paula Tomisaki
United States

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

The complexities and the dynamism of contemporary life cannot be cast into the simple platonic forms provided by the classical canon, nor does the modern style afford enough means of articulation. We have to deal with social diagrams that are more complex when compared with the social programs of the early modern period. Instead of forcing the program to fill spaces of a static typology, a revision and expansion of the skyscraper is considered. The project “Chimera” challenges typological classification. Chimera is a name borrowed from the hybrid mythological creature made of parts of multiple animals. The hybrid acknowledges and celebrates the heterogeneity and complexity of our world. Read the rest of this entry »

Warp Skyscraper

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Nenand Basic, Keeyong Lee
Bosnia Hercegovina / South Korea

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

The project questions the possibility of coexistence between a high-rise building and a horizontal city. It is placed in a typical Western European city, characterized by high density of historic urban fabric, materialized in the historic Place des Vosges, in Paris, France. Any kind of intervention here seems impossible. Finding a way to integrate the high-rise building into this urban tissue, and at the same time provide it with minimum impact to the surroundings, while giving it maximum surface / program capability, is the main objective. We wanted to avoid the usual way of imagining skyscrapers, the one that imposes its own, strange, and often totalitarian law. Read the rest of this entry »

Waterscraper

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Mathias Koester
Germany

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

Along with space tourism and adventurous tourist destinations, the Waterscraper offers an opportunity to experience the world’s most voluminous element – water and its amazing habitat. Built as a skyscraper upside-down, into the sea, the Waterscaper creates a habitable link towards the lower levels of the sea and features a unique hotel with a distinctive combination of recreation and scientific facilities. Half building and half vessel, the Waterscraper’s design and construction is purely driven by the analysis of aquatic forces. The circular setting provides an effective ring structure to withstand the water pressure. The floor plates diminish in size as the water pressure rises in the lower levels. The submerged main body is stabilized by the floating ring which connects via a dampened bridge structures to ensure the vertical position of the Waterscaper at all times. Read the rest of this entry »

Reciprocal Conjugation

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

1st Place
2006 Skyscraper Competition

Changhak Choi
United States

 

First Place

First Place

 

Even though we have reached an era of advanced technology, the majority of the skyscrapers are structures that don’t provide sustainability to their social, cultural, and ecological environment. In a contemporary and diverse metropolis, such as New York City, the skyscraper should be a reciprocal organism that interacts with its many different layers. In this case, the proposed skyscraper recognizes New York as a temporal residence for millions of students, artists, and tourists. Read the rest of this entry »

Phare Tower

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Manuelle Gautrand
France

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

Phare Tower is a 300 meter-high new-generation tower at La Défense, on the western rim of Paris, France. The program consists of 140 000 m2 of office space with two restaurants and a rooftop viewing deck for the general public. The concept we are evolving aims at two things. First, express power in a high-rise structure that is a communication device without precedent. Second, introduce poetry by creating a unique building the size of the Eiffel Tower. Read the rest of this entry »

London Overground

By:  | December - 15 - 2009

Special Mention
2007 Skyscraper Competition

Drew Mills, Sebastian Messer, Paul Warrior
United States

 

Special Mention

Special Mention

 

Central London is amongst the most expensive locations for land and real estate in the world despite having a 19th Century transportation system at full capacity that puts the city in danger of stagnating and losing its pre-eminent world city status. The long-delayed Cross Rail Project, which will form a rail link between Heathrow, Brentwood, and Shenfield, via the West End and Canary Wharf, will likely begin construction in 2008. It will not be completed until 2015, three years after the London Olympics. Read the rest of this entry »