Editors’ Choice
2020 Skyscraper Competition

Ruwan Fernando
Australia

Ever since the Apollo mission showed us the first images of our ‘pale blue dot’ from space, the idea of the world as a ‘whole’ has captured the people’s imagination. Going beyond borders, oceans, and thinking of the continents as a continuous entity comes from this vision. Fifty years later, we face the existential threat of ecological disaster, and maybe revisiting the whole earth project seems like a way of recapturing that drive.

This proposal looks at a network of towers that span across the oceans connecting the planet in a matrix that provides energy cleans the oceans and gives new chances for life to thrive.

Fusion, Solar, and Hydro-power are used in this matrix with all of these being in high abundance in the ocean. The towers are also self-sufficient and mine minerals from the water as well as farm to support their communities. Research and manufacturing also feature heavily. The connections of the grid reduce the need for air travel and shipping which consumes a large number of the Earth’s resources. Instead, the grid functions as a whole and provides power energy and refuge to the world as a whole.