Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Yaroslav Usov

This multifunctional complex is located on the coast of Himkinskoe in Moscow, Russia. The main design element is the displacement of the floor plates which are arranged as a spiral staircase. The main idea is to create pockets or public areas to be used for different types activities. Many of these spaces will be used as private gardens and public parks. The building is also equipped with the latest technologies for water recollection and harvesting of solar and wind power. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2007 Skyscraper Competition

One of the greatest problems of skyscrapers is to integrate different programs in the same structure. A visual connection between different areas is commonly neglected and there is no interaction between diverse functions. The quality of a horizontal city is the flow between activities and spaces.

The main concept of this skyscraper is to design a true vertical city with horizontal qualities. The idea is to explore the rich fabric of cities like Paris or Amsterdam and transform them into a vertical structure. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2007 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Nelson Byun, Laddawan Prawatyotin, Travis Delingua

This proposal examines the possibility of building a plane of mirrors suspended in the sky where we will be able to walk and experience being free in the sky. This project joins other continuous monument ideas like the ones proposed by Superstudio. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2007 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Martin Oberascher, Christoph Eppacher

The advancement in parametric design has opened the door to the exploration of morpho-tectonic architecture. This tower is located contiguous to the CCTV building by OMA in Beijing. China. It is an investigation on the transformation of the floor plates and the façade according to different programs. A series of tectonic manipulations change the appearance of the building depending on program zones and its direct relationship with the city. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2007 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Fernando Castiñeira, Hernan Goldfarb, Alejandro Ispani, Alex Nelken, Javier Maratea, Malena Verni

This project proposes a new type of building for the contemporary metropolis. Instead of constructing another skyscraper it examines the benefits of an underground complex with a central void that introduces light and ventilation to every space. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Nathan Lee Colkitt, Gregory Marx De Peña, Michael Rocco Sablone

We are looking at architecture in the city as an opportunity to discover and explore the physical and metaphysical worlds together as one.  Our inspiration forms a question:  What is it to enclose space in its most simple form?  When we looked at the legacy of ancient forms and simple geometry we found the tetrahedron.  It is the simplest representation of space.

The regular tetrahedron, often simply called “the” tetrahedron, is the Platonic solid with four polyhedron vertices, six polyhedron edges, and four equivalent equilateral triangular faces. It is also a uniform polyhedron.   The tetrahedron has 7 axes of symmetry.  There are no other convex polyhedra other than the tetrahedron having four faces.  The surface area of the tetrahedron is simply four times the area of a single face.  It is a pyramid with an equilateral triangular base and sides. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Nik Stützle

High-rise buildings have always been symbols of economical strength, and necessary for every metropolis to compete as a modern and vital city. This demonstration of power on the other hand mostly has a negative effect on the urban context: because of their size high-rise buildings are difficult to integrate into sensible urban environments and behave like aliens in the city.

Behind impressive facades apartments are still quite minimal; one floor-plan usually is multiplied in vertical, connected by dark elevators and rescue stairs. Narrow corridors and anonym foyers do not really offer an adequate space for social activities. The consequences very often are loneliness of the inhabitants, alienation and criminality, syndromes that contributed to the negative image of high-rise buildings. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Michal Bernasik

Location
The main harbor of Buenos Aires is located in the eastern side of the city with a direct connection to the city center. Traveling in 1929 in South Amerika, Le Corbusier remarked: ‘Oh, Buenos Aires has given its back to the river, never sees it, and does not know it exists’. Sixty years later, in 1989, some efforts were made to revitalize the neglected and separating the capital from the river port – Puerto Madero. The modernization had to bring life into this oldest part of the harbor and to make the city turn its face again to the river. Indeed, the ‘New Puerto Madero’, while not loosing its port character, has now become a popular and vibrant with life district in the heart of Buenos Aires. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Louis Edward 

Fractal Geometry
Fractal geometry is used to describe and analyse the complexity of the irregular shapes in the natural world around us. The most striking property of these ‘fractal’ shapes is their characteristic patterns are found repeatedly at descending scales, so that their parts, at any scale, are similar in shape to the whole.

Concept
To redistribute the fabric of the skyscraper into a fractal based city network-form within the eco-systemic paradigm. Moving away form building the skyscraper to act as an isolated part toward building skyscrapers to act as part of a whole.  From this point on, the skyscraper cannot be viewed as an isolated entity, although it will still be physically or visually present. The growth or build of a skyscraper thus become an emerging process as part of an evolved urban fabric and not build at once. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Andrew Colopy, Aimee Chang

Welcome to Formiscucity, Manhattan’s premier recreational P.A.R.C. tower – where a new way of life is taking shape!

Formiscucity, located just west of Times Square in Manhattan’s new and most contested real estate, occupies a single city block as an uber-special island within the man-made islands of the city’s 200’ x 800’ block grid system.  The 50-story tower reaches up 600 feet, with a footprint covering 25% of the site to achieve the super density characteristic of Manhattan.  This extreme density promotes diverse interaction as a microcosm of the city itself. Read the rest of this entry »