Honorable Mention
2014 Skyscraper Competition
Thibaut Deprez
France
Light and resistant, bamboo
is traditionally used as a building material in numerous regions around the
globe. Over time, its allocation was somewhat modified, especially in Asia.
Henceforth, within great cities, it is restricted to being used as a building
construction support. In this way, it was used for the scaffolding of five of
the greatest skyscrapers in the world. Bamboo scaffolding served the splendor
of these constructions, but also contributed to the erection of many much more
modest towers. These towers make us feel ill at ease because of the harshness
and coldness of their frontages. The virtually infinite stacking of identical
storeys annihilates all human expressions and interactions. Abruptly
cloned, these towers produce oppressing dormitory towns.
The stance of this project
is set up around the observation of the harshness of these towers and to
suggest a solution. The project offers to use bamboo scaffoldings as a driving
force to promote the revival of these buildings. By making them permanent and
inseparable from the construction. They endow the towers with an external
surface which the inhabitants can directly claim and where life can expand.
They produce a net which can be fashioned according to the circumstances,
specific to each building and give each one a true identity. They promote the
emergence of authentic vertical gardens in places where density does not allow
the establishment of horizontal gardens. Furthermore, they favor the
stabilization of structures during earthquakes and support an ecological production
of energy – towers and bamboo scaffoldings achieve symbiosis.