The winners of eVolo magazine’s 7th Skyscraper Competition have been announced! This year the publication, which has hosted the prestigious competition since 2006, received 625 submissions from 83 different countries, but only 3 of the most thought-provoking projects were selected as the winners. From floating (on-water and in-midair) skyscrapers to morphing structures, each of these futuristic designs not only resembles something out of a sci-fi film, but more importantly, radically defies our understanding of vertical architecture, creatively explores new technologies, and proposes solutions for a more sustainable urban future.
First Place: “Polar Umbrella” (Pictured at top)
Derek Pirozzi
United States
Pirozzi’s ambitious design not only addresses issues of global warming but also aims to rebuild the arctic ice caps. According to eVolo Magazine, “The Polar Umbrella’s buoyant super-structure becomes a statement for the prevention of future depletion of our protective arctic region. Through its desalinization and power facilities, this arctic skyscraper becomes a floating metropolis equipped with NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) research laboratories, renewable power stations, dormitory-style housing units, eco-tourist attractions, and ecological habitats for wildlife. A series of these structures would be strategically located in the most affected areas.”
Second Place: “Phobia Skyscraper”
Darius Maikoff and Elodie Godo
France
With their innovative design for the “Phobia Skyscraper” Maikoff and Godo have envisioned a residential development constructed out of reconfigurable recycled industrial materials that, according to eVolo Magazine, “seeks to revitalize an abandoned industrial area of Paris, France, through an ingenious system of prefabricated housing units. Its modularity allows for a differentiation of various programs and evolution in time.”
Third Place: “Light Park”
Ting Xu and Yiming Chen
China
Xu and Chen’s design for “Light Park” endeavors to ameliorate Beijing’s issue of traffic and overpopulation. As said by eVolo Magazine, “One way to make scarce green and recreation space available to residents of [Beijing] is a skyscraper that floats above the land, taking new development to the sky. The Light Park stays afloat thanks to a large, mushroom cap-like helium-filled balloon at its top, and solar-powered propellers directly below. Programmatic platforms that host parks, sports fields, green houses, restaurants, and other uses are suspended from the top of the structure by reinforced steel cables; the platforms fan in different directions around the spherical vessel to balance its weight. These slabs are also staggered to allow for maximum exposure to sunlight on each level.”
Honorable mentions were given to several other commendable projects, including but not limited to “a pH conditioner skyscraper that resembles a jellyfish and purifies polluted air,” a “volcano skyscraper that harvests geothermal energy,” and “a cluster of artificial islands that create the 7th continent in the Pacific Ocean.”
A gallery of the Honorable Mention winners; more information of each of the Honorable Mention projects available on eVolo. Click on a thumbnail to launch the slideshow. All images courtesy eVolo.
