Honorable Mention
2022 Skyscraper Competition

Shuzhan Liu, Siang Duan, Yimin Gao, Jingyi Li, Shiliang Wang, Daxu Wei
China

The design site is located in a Tiankeng in Shaotong City, Yunnan Province, where villagers have lived for generations. According to a legend, the ancestors of the villagers in Tiankeng lived here in order to avoid war. With the development of the times, problems gradually emerged, causing many inconveniences to the local villagers.

Local dilemma
Residents have a low standard of living and lack infrastructures such as education, medical care, and culture.
The industrial system is monotonous, and the industrial system needs to be optimized.
The development of urbanization and the emigration of villagers have caused the traditional village to be on the verge of extinction.
The outlying location and inconvenient transportation restrict economic development.

Design ideas
The unique geographical conditions of Tiankeng have formed a microclimate suitable for the growth of different herbs. By filling the Tiankeng with spherical units to increase the functional mix of Tiankeng, create a new agricultural model of the “herbal industry”

integrating “research, production, processing and marketing”, upgrading the industrial system, promoting economic development, and improving the living standards of villagers. At the same time, infrastructure such as education, medical care, theater, etc. will be increased and opened to surrounding villages. Designed an innovation research center in the countryside, strengthening the connection between the two and achieving mutual benefit.

Design method
Different functional spheres are connected in series with truss supports, so that the main body of the building is suspended inside the Tiankeng, minimizing the impact on the ecological environment, and forming a scattered architectural distribution. From the space feeling perspective, it is a kind of inheritance and development of local traditional space. Innovation does not mean opposition. Based on protecting the traditional culture of Tiankeng villages, we use modern technology to develop them and provide new ideas for the protection of specific villages that are about to disappear.