Honorable Mention
2017 Skyscraper Competition
Wenjia Li, Ran Huo, Jing Ju
China
Manhattan is a paradise of skyscrapers, which not only decorate the
city’s skyline, but also provide more usable space for people living
there. This design scheme starts from a most basic architectural component, an
arch that undergoes transformations through the changes of light, human
behavior, and other factors to form different spaces/units, which overlap
one another vertically to form the final design.
Arch and hidden transportation
In both, Middle Ages cathedrals in Europe and ancient pagodas in China, we
found that double-layer arches could create a mezzanine, which we cunningly
combined with vertical transportation, which works exceptionally well
to service spaces. This hidden space inspire us
invent a new relationship between arch and transportation.
Arch and spatial transparency
Either in a Gothic cathedral or a Chinese Buddhist pagoda, lighting is altered
by the height and span of arches. In this project, we reconsolidate the
acknowledged form of the arch and tend to reinvent a new arch system that is
defined by direction, dimension, and memorial distortion. Read the rest of this entry »
The Forgotten Memorials: The Utopian Future of
Urbanization
Honorable Mention
2017 Skyscraper Competition
Zhonghan Huang, Wen Zhu
United States
Tracing back to two hundred years ago, urban growth came with the
demolition of old buildings, which then were replaced with clusters of new
larger and denser buildings. The original residents, in many cases, were forced
to move out and were reimbursed for a monetary loss. Urbanization was based on
this constant cycle.
Today, however, there is a new era that people have been waiting for but
was not imagined. Contrary to demolishing old buildings to achieve
urbanization, the early generation legislated a rule that all of new
constructions cannot be built at the sacrifice of demolishing old ones. The
past buildings remain in physical forms various mirrors to tell who we used to
be and where we had been. As a return, the original residents of old buildings
are able to stay, to hold high value of properties, and to enjoy the majestic
view. In order to keep the past and to accommodate the future on limited land,
every generation starts to construct new buildings from the bottom of existing
ones. Consequently, older buildings constantly rest on top of newer blocks.
They gradually, generation by generation, penetrate clouds and become memorials
beyond the sky. Read the rest of this entry »
Pod
Vending Machine Skyscraper
Honorable Mention
2017 Skyscraper Competition
Haseef Rafiei
United Kingdom
City’s Affinity for Automata
Tokyo has long been the leading city for robotics and manufacturing. The city’s
fascination towards science and engineering has changed how society interact
with machines. Its culture and social patterns have long revolved around its
obsession with automation and its high regard for automated systems. The
proliferation of vending machines in Tokyo is impossible to ignore. They are on
nearly every block in Tokyo down alleyways, in front of convenience stores and
almost in every neighbourhood. As a result, these
machines have minimised the cost of human labour, eliminating the need for sales clerks. The Pod
Vending Machine explores the possibility of converting the real estate industry
into an automated vending system.
Building on Demand
Abandonment of construction projects remains a serious problem in the
construction industry. It results in the wastage of materials and resources. It
affects not only the immediate house buyers but also other project players and
the general public. In some occasions, it also involves the use of public fund
for the revival of abandoned projects. In response to the problem, the scheme
proposes a building is constantly under construction: A tower that grows in
parallel with the city’s housing demand. Borrowing the Japanese maxim Wabi-sabi, the building remains an ‘incomplete
infrastructure’ that changes and adapts over time.
Proposal
A skyscraper that functions as a home dispenser. It continuously grows
according to the city’s housing demand. The building production method adopts
an automated system. Ready-to-use pods are manufactured, plugged onto site and
can be purchased instantly. A pod printer that 3D prints modular dwellings is
installed above the building. The printer will dispense pods and will grow
higher as the building grows. Inspired by a commonly used machine that
dispenses nearly all of life’s necessities for the people of Tokyo, this vast
framed structure aims to house a large number of pods equipped with basic
amenities for residential and commercial use.
The design of the infrastructure suggests a dynamic environment where
spaces for social interaction is established in several pockets throughout the
building. The spatial structure of the building is designed to be flexible and
mobile. Modules within the complex can move and regroup through mobile cranes
and mechanical arms. The frame structure remains a constantly growing and
developing spatial complex. The series of frames and individual pods are
printed by 3D printer functions as the subsequent local consolidation and
change.
The pods will be manufactured on-site creating an extremely efficient
construction process. The pods are then transported below by cranes and plugged
onto the megastructure. The positioning of the pods calculated by the
building’s automated system. The 3D Printer which is constantly moving upwards
receives materials that are pumped up by hydraulics on the sides of the
building. Pods that are abandoned, after a certain period of time, will be
dismantled and kept in storage or brought back to the printer – creating a
closed loop.
The building creates a system that celebrates individuality as each pod
can be customized differently according to user preference. The users are able
to customize the pods based on their needs. They can do so by choosing from an
array of ready-to-use sub-pods which are divided into basic amenities. For
example, a user that does not require a kitchen, can choose to exclude it from
the selection. When a family expands, they can choose to purchase an additional
pod and reconfigure existing sub-pods which can be connected instantly. Aside
from rental pods, the megastructure will also house small offices for start-up
businesses and commercial centers that will grow within the structure. Read the rest of this entry »
Heal-Berg: Reverse Climate Changing Machine
Honorable Mention
2017 Skyscraper Competition
Luca Beltrame, Saba
Nabavi Tafreshi
Italy, Iran
Extract from the scientists report.
Planet Earth, March 16th 2039.
The world is a safe place again.
We went through the time when the complex patterns representing the world were
doomed to collapse, climate was changing at a rate exceeding most scientific
forecasts; oceans warming, air pollution and climate change were caught in a
discernible self-boosting loop. Global warming was becoming catastrophic and
irreversible. Thereupon, we grasped the urge to take action.
Carbon dioxide – the abundant greenhouse gas and primary driver of
global warming – levels in Antarctica raised to an unprecedented number in 4
million years. “The far southern hemisphere was the last place on the earth
where Carbon dioxide had not yet reached this mark”, Peter Tans, lead
scientist, NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network (June 2016).
Climate migration, was not a prospective hypothesis, but the harsh
reality. According to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, an annual average of 21.5
million people had been forcibly displaced by weather-related sudden onset
hazards – such as floods, storms, wildfires, extreme temperature – each year
since 2008. Thousands of others flee their homes in the context of slow-onset
hazards, such as droughts or coastal erosion linked to sea level rise. Millions
of people were foreseen to encounter migration movements and as a result,
pursue habitat, expand the occupied territories and eventually spoil intact
wild areas of the world.
But there was still hope.
Global collaboration and unity of nations targeting these worldwide aggravating
circumstances by sharing technologies and knowledge, led to birth of project
HEAL-BERG.
First HEAL-BERG unveiling
ceremony: Antarctica May 27th 2022
Our vision for HEAL-BERG is to create independent complexes (in terms of
energy and mobility), designed to cease, heal and reverse the process of
climate change and its impacts on the earth. We went on a mission to collect
some of the most recent innovative technology breakthroughs from all around the
world, and combine them as elements of a greater embodiment operating as a
whole to achieve a goal, survival. Our technologies are mainly functioning
in four criteria, and have been proven possible in practice:
Cleansing and Purification
Converting carbon dioxide to oxygen by zapping it with laser (University
of California, Davis)
Ocean water cooling
Energy Generation
Salinity Gradient Power: Generating electricity by two water streams with a
salinity difference
Generating electricity from wind power: our specific aerodynamic design to
channel the wind path through the turbines
Building Material
3D form of graphene (one of the strongest lightweight materials known)
using extracted carbon from the process of converting CO2 to O2 (MIT)
Transportation
Hyperloop: fast access and connectivity
Drones: mobility of residential units between different complexes
Utilization of so-called technologies is not only to face the current
environmental issues – such as air and water pollution and temperature rise –
but also to provide residency for victims of the late changes, given the fact
that HEAL-BERG is a source of clean energy, sustainability and entirely exempt
from pollutions.
Climate change is a global matter, as well as its impacts; by addressing
the fundaments (decreasing CO2 levels and producing clean energy), using
high-speed transportation systems (Drones and Hyperloop) and requiring the
least of preconditions (brine and sea water), HEAL-BERG is a unique solution
overlooking all the physical borders; however, with the impacts not distributed
evenly on our planet, there are some critical spots based on CO2 concentration,
temperature rise, level of pollution, etc. that could become first priority for
our location proposal.
We can succeed at only one condition, we have
to act now. Read the rest of this entry »
Adaptive Capacity: A Socio-ecological Vertical
Community in Tanzania
Honorable Mention
2017 Skyscraper Competition
Adriann Jeevananthan
United Kingdom
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, with a
population of 4.5 million, with the city’s stable and high economic growth of
6.5% per annum over the last decade, it has become one of the fastest growing
cities in the world. Due to large amounts of investments being injected into
the construction, communication and mining sectors, Dar es
Salaam is now prioritising infrastructural and
commercial developments throughout the city. For this reason, many informal
settlements are being destroyed for development, displacing hundreds and
thousands of people, getting further and further away from the city’s
infrastructure.
Due to Dar es Salaam’s huge shift in economy,
the poverty rate has declined to approximately 28%. However, one in six people
still live below the national poverty line, almost unchanged due to the high
population rate. While the city is growing, it is also rapidly urbanizing,
but countless cannot afford to live within the city which leads to falling into
informal settlements. 80% of informal settlements are overcrowded, lack clean
water and adequate sanitary and are surrounded by garbage and toxic materials.
With the expanding population, these problems will only escalate, putting more
people’s livelihoods at risk.
The proposal seeks to address these problems by adapting and
reconfiguring an alternative solution for slum-dwellers, by the means of a
‘Vertical Village’. This vertical village aims to provide a higher quality of
life to the inhabitants, eliminating rough and unsanitary conditions for a
cleaner and safer environment. The design also recognises
the key factors associates with slum communities – autonomy, flexibility and a
strong sense of community. This offers dwellers the opportunity to develop in synchronisation with the rest Dar es
Salaam.
The boundaries of dwelling, work/office spaces, education and childcare,
healthcare, leisure in one building have been blurred by diffusing the programmes, rather than isolating them within different
sections, creates a distributed resilience, a rich and interactive environment
which echoes atmospheres of slum communities. Additionally, each type of
function is assigned a colour inspired by the highly
saturated Tingatinga painting style, native to Dar es Salaam.
A vast amount of high-rise buildings in hot climates mimic western
models with sealed facades, reliant on air-conditioning and have little solar
shading. This proposal intends to protect inhabitants and take advance of the
weather conditions of Dar es Salaam. The building
provides a naturally ventilated, perforated, indoor-outdoor and shaded model to
suite the tropical climate.
The project is modeled by slum-dwellers autonomous lives, by being
self-sufficient, in mimicking nature’s closed loop system. The Vertical Village
is constructed above an unused swamp, which will take advantage of the water by
the means of agriculture and aquaculture. Small pods are used to create nested
ecologies, broadening the variety of vegetation grown in Dar es Salaam and Tanzania, offering people a more nutritious
diet.
A crucial part of the scheme is to teach occupants about safer and
cleaner living, so they can share the knowledge and skills they have been
offered to other communities. Small hubs of work stations, dwellings, leisure,
childcare and healthcare facilities will be erect in and around the city and
further, creating translocal, transnational and transglobal civic networks between poor communities. Read the rest of this entry »
Mountain
Skyscraper in Yosemite
Honorable Mention
2017 Skyscraper Competition
Ryan
Ibarra
United States
The Mountain is a skyscraper located in California at Yosemite National
Park. The structure reaches almost 3,000 feet in the year and is conceptualized
to exist congruously with the existing environment.
Concept
The illusion of separation between man and nature continues to be perpetuated
in the zeitgeist of a culture where forward thinking and technological
advancement come at the expense of our environment. A relationship
constrictively defined as occupant (man) and habitat (nature), the general
consensus is that one is recurrently intruding on the other. In the pursuit to
reconcile this dichotomy, The Mountain generates a spacial
and functional relationship between context and program. To cultivate a
harmonious environment, the structure combines synthetic and natural resources
that equilibrate the necessities of man and nature.
Architecture
The Mountain takes the primitive idea of naturally cavernous space and combines
it with the form of a modern skyscraper. Using a grid to establish a framework
for the design, the mountain cliffside becomes the
host for the spaces to be carved out of. These extrusions are negative spaces
embedded in the towering natural structure of the earth. Individually, the
habitats are able to occupy different programs varying in scale. When aggregated
together the volumes form a monolithic skyscraper reaching thousands of feet
into the the air.
Program
Against the background of a natural environment, the project seeks to encourage
observation, exploration, preservation, and research. As an Observatory and
Conservatory, science becomes the foundation for the program to thrive. It can
respect a sensitive natural landscape and support mankind’s curiosity for
knowledge and discovery. The goal is to begin an architectural typology that
exemplifies the potential for a balanced environment. The Mountain draws from a
primitive design concept, but in doing so is able to achieve a built
environment that is forward-thinking in a natural and technical way. Read the rest of this entry »