eVolo Announces Winners of 2018 Skyscraper Competition

eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2018 Skyscraper Competition. The Jury selected 3 winners and 27 honorable mentions from 526 projects received. The annual award, established in 2006, recognizes visionary ideas- projects that through the novel novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments.

The honorable mentions include Sandscrapers that prevent desertification, floating skyscrapers that transform ocean water into fresh water, towers that collect fog in arid regions, 3-D printed buildings, and volcano skyscrapers among other visionary proposals.

First Place

Skyshelter.zip: Foldable Skyscraper for Disaster Zones / Damian Granosik, Jakub Kulisa, Piotr Pańczyk

The project is a foldable skyscraper inspired by origami that could be easily transported and deployed in disaster zones.

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Skyshelter.zip: Foldable Skyscraper for Disaster Zones. Image Courtesy of eVolo

More and more natural disasters happen annually across the world. When dealing with forces so powerful, standard means of crisis-management often prove to be inefficient. Whether a certain region is struck by earthquake, flood or hurricane – help needs to arrive quickly. This is often easier to be said than done, as damages to transportation infrastructure or remote localization can make it extremely difficult.

The Skyshelter.zip tries to address these issues by proposing a structure that while offering large floor surface is compact, easy to transport anywhere and can be deployed with a minimum amount of time and manpower requirements. It is meant to serve as a multi-purpose hub for any relief operation.

Second Place

Shinto Shrine / Urban Rice Farming Skyscraper / Tony Leung

The project aims to restore the traditional interactions between a Shinto Shrine and the local people- an urban building for rice farming, spiritual meditation, and community development.

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Shinto Shrine / Urban Rice Farming Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

In the past, Jinja and rice farming were the center of the Japanese economy. The paddy field and Jinja complex also served as centers of everyday interaction. Many local Jinja not only housed the relevant Kami (deities) but also served as a warehouse for harvests. Also, the biggest communal festival, Matsuri, happened during spring seeding and autumn harvesting.

As cities expand, both rice farming and Jinja remains in the shadow of urban livings. Jinja complex is overshadowed by modern skyscrapers. However, more than two centuries ago, according to some ancient manuscripts, Izumo Shrine was said to be reaching 96m high above ground i.e. a historical origin of skyscraping Jinja. On the other hand, recent development in hydroponic farming technology makes vertical rice farming possible. The pitched roof of a Jinja can be converted to a stepped paddy field, which conforms to the traditional idea of using organic roofing material in Jinja construction.

Third Place

Waria Lemuy: Fire Prevention Skyscraper / Claudio C. Araya Arias

This proposal envisions a new prototype for vertical housing in areas damaged by wild fires in Chile. The project makes use of passive systems to mitigate wind and disperse water to prevent new fires.

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Waria Lemuy: Fire Prevention Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Forest fires are one of the greatest agents of degradation of ecosystems in the world. Although fire is part of the natural dynamics of some habitats, large disturbances cause a deterioration of their functionalities. Fire modifies biogeochemical cycles, produces changes in vegetation, soil, fauna, hydrological and geomorphological processes, water quality and even changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Each of these elements puts at risk not only the existing geography but also directly threatens population centers, putting at risk the lives of people, their goods, infrastructure, among other things.

The proposal looks for a new way of inhabiting the territory, through a system of buildings at height, avoiding the effects of the old settlement model. The objective is to face the reconstruction from a new perspective, recover the lost housing and infrastructure, added to a restoration of the flora and biodiversity, through a system that prevents and mitigates future catastrophes, through a renovating process that allows coexisting with the geography and the territory.