Architect Vincent Callebaut designed a sustainable tower in Paris to filter air particles and harvest wind and solar power. The project would be located in the 19th Parisian district which characterizes for being an extremely polluted area surrounded by old factories.

The project is divided in two; a “Solar Drop” located on top of abandoned railway tracks and a “Wind tower”. The Solar Drop is designed to transform polluted into clean air through a system of filters covered with titanium dioxide which break the pollutant particles. Along with the green technologies, the building is equipped with recreational areas for the city such as gardens, pools, galleries, and commerce. The Wind Tower equipped with turbines in its entire façade produces enough energy for the neighborhood and houses a museum and learning center on renewable energies. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2010 Skyscraper Competition

Ryszard Rychlicki, Agnieszka Nowak
Poland

Capture the Rain Skyscraper is a building whose roof and external shell ,which consists systems of gutters, are aimed at capturing as much rainfall as possible to meet the daily needs of its inhabitants. Average daily consumption of water per person is 150 liters, out of which 85 liters may be replaced by rain water. Within the last thirty years water consumption has significantly increased. There are lots of factors that contribute to such an increase such as increasing number washing machines and dish washers, increasing popularity of garden showering devices and flushing toilets. A third of water being used in households in western countries is flushed in toilets. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2010 Skyscraper Competition

Adam Vukmanov
Austria

The goal of this project was to design a sustainable building that differentiates from current assembly of ecological developments. This is achieved with combining sustainable systems and other parameters within design process, therefore forming the building into harmonious and controlled complexity of geometry and space. The Trombe Wall system, Chimney and Wind tunnel effects are all traditional components here used in innovative way to generate exciting points on every level of the project.

The data of domestic environmental elements such as Wind and Sun are combined with functional organization of a building into a set of parameters that generate a modeling condition for a new “zero+ energy” high-rise typology. The result is a vertical, voluptuous façade pattern on the city horizon with diverse structural submatrix that reacts in multiple scales. In relation to the old urban fabric of Zagreb, Croatia, the tower follows existing rhythm of interference within each city block. It appears differently from each viewpoint, thus being a significant landmark in the mixed context of historic and modern architecture. On local level, building differentiates in all directions, creating unique interior-exterior spatial situations within fluctuated facade distortions on every floor horizon view. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention
2010 Skyscraper Competition

Elena Batueva
Russia

The project of a high rise medical centre is planned to resolve problems connected with public medicine services in Moscow. The image of the building was formed due to the following three factors: the desire to get the highest possible amount of usable area within the city downtown – a crucial issue for municipal hospitals; the need of a structure solution that could provide the ultimate self-support in energy system; the necessity of linking hospital units in a way that will help to avoid all the traffic troubles existing in Moscow nowadays.

The system of health care in Russia is free, so the absolute majority of hospitals depend on the financial provision of government. In the center of Moscow many of them turn into shapeless and irrationally organized complexes that occupy huge areas of former manorial estates – places of historical and architectural value.  The lack of state subsidies and indifferent treatment of local executives often cause these precious buildings to lose their original form irretrievably. Furthermore, many of them don’t meet the modern requirements for hospitals. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2007 Skyscraper Competition

The main concept of this project is to create a green open core for four towers with different architectural programs. The four skyscrapers integrate with the landscape as legs peeling from the ground that offer a variety of cultural and recreational spaces. The green core is equipped with water recollection systems, terraces, and gardens. Read the rest of this entry »

Project submitted to the 2006 Skyscraper Competition
Designed by: Thomas Herzig

The project for the Isoka Tower in Hong Kong studies the possibility of constructing skyscrapers on the water. Its main concept is to provide sustainable housing, offices, and recreational areas to the over crowed city of Hong Kong where land for new developments is extremely expensive and very limited. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention – 2007 Housing Competition
Project by: Federico Rossi

This project focuses on the development of new housing typology in Oman, generated through the accumulation of independent variables into a system of relationships, where the interdependencies generate a variation of possibilities that is able to adapt to local conditions. The development of inhabitable units will be dependent on environmental variables and eco-sustainable principles to achieve new spatial and per formative configurations. Read the rest of this entry »

Special Mention – 2007 Housing Competition
Project by: Kyuseon Hong, Kyungjae Kim, Yongju Lee

The water-edge condition of Manhattan has been gradually changed from a swampy sloped wet land to a horizontal hard concrete structure. Even though we have more area for development along the hardened horizontality, the natural environmental qualities have been drastically reduced. Furthermore, the concrete edge is also limiting the boundary of Manhattan’s growth with strict lines. Read the rest of this entry »

Green Skyscrapers
In the next few days we will showcase 25 innovative proposals for green skyscrapers. These projects were submitted for the Annual Skyscraper Competition from 2006 to 2009.

Project 19 of 25

Ting Ho Cheung, Yiju Lee
Canada

Megastructure - Urban Organism

The strategies of urbanization, especially the impacts of suburbia colonization, are a controversy. The hypothesis for this research is the influence of a higher population density in the Greater Toronto Area and how this will affect its inherent resources. The prosperity of cities depends on the smooth movement of people and goods and it is getting more difficult with the increasing sprawling developments where large portions of land are not utilized and houses, shops, and workplaces are very far from each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Green Skyscrapers
In the next few days we will showcase 25 innovative proposals for green skyscrapers. These projects were submitted for the Annual Skyscraper Competition from 2006 to 2009.

Project 5 of 25

Nikolay Simeonov
Bulgaria

Four Seasons Skyscraper

Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, grew rapidly after the fall of the communist regime. It is the most enticing for business and living city in the country. Unemployment rate is less than 3%, comparing with 12% for the state. About 20 years ago, together with the building of the subway line, the boulevard T.Aleksandrov was laid out. The idea is to connect the center with less developed west areas. Boulevard in words, more correctly to say road, generally flanked by old, almost ruin-like housing fund. The building of new structures is impending, the dispute is how dense and high. Sofia used to have fame for green city. The parks and the gardens have been neglected. The asphalt has conquered the grass, almost no new trees have been planted. Read the rest of this entry »