eVolo Magazine is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Skyscraper Competition. The Jury selected 3 winners and 20 honorable mentions from 427 projects received. The annual award established in 2006 recognizes visionary ideas that through the 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 FIRST PLACE was awarded to CLIMATE CONTROL SKYSCRAPER designed by Kim Gyeong Jeung, Min Yeong Gi, and Yu Sang Gu from South Korea. The project investigates the use of a series of skyscrapers to modify weather conditions that would improve the global climate crisis and stop desertification, rising temperatures, and natural disasters.
The recipients of the SECOND PLACE are Wang Jue, Zhang Qian, Zhang Changsheng, Li Muchun, and Xu Jing from China for the project TSUNAMI PARK. The project is designed as a man-made inhabited mangrove for the Tonga region to prevent tsunamis that would affect the Pacific Rim.
NEW SPRING: AGRO-ECOLOGICAL SKYSCRAPER designed by Michał Spólnik from Austria and Marcin Kitala from Poland received the THIRD PLACE. The proposal is envisioned as an aggregation of garden modules containing distinct flora and microorganisms that could be deployed to specific regions that would flourish with new life.
The Jury was formed by Volkan Alkanoglu [Principal, VA | DESIGN], Gianni Botsford [Principal, Gianni Botsford Architects], Steven Chilton [Principal, SCA | Steven Chilton Architects], Tsvetelina Georgieva [Principal, DesignMorphine], Nuru Karim [Principal, Nudes], Arthur Mamou-Mani [Principal, Mamou-Mani Architects], and Moon Hoon [Principal, Moon Hoon Architects].
WINNERS
First Prize
Kim Gyeong Jeung, Min Yeong Gi, and Yu Sang Gu from South Korea
The two risk factors that will come to mankind over the next decade are “Climate crisis” and “failure to respond to the climate crisis”. 2019 was confirmed as “the Second warmest year in history”. Experts are referring to the end of the Earth as 2050 due to the abnormal climate. From the beginning of the 21st century to 2021, the average temperature of the Earth’s surface rose by 0.93 ±0.07’C, which is more than two-thirds of 1980. (It is increasing by 0.13 degrees to 0.25 degrees every 10 years). Due to the increase in temperature, the global village is currently facing various natural disasters and environmental problems. There are various damages, the most serious damage of climate change to extreme drought and desertification caused by drying up long-term. Of course, reclamation of forests, and man-made factors such as environmental pollution and deforestation have conspired to happen, but desertification due to global climate change is accelerating. Despite these global movements, environmental disasters and desertification around the world are still rising exponentially, and some experts say that environmental problems have already progressed a lot. In other words, awareness and policy on environmental issues are important nationally, but a movement to solve environmental problems through a groundbreaking technological and architectural approach is needed and should be applied worldwide. Then, how can we architecturally prevent desertification as well as persistent natural disasters? The answer lies in the ‘Climate Control Tower’. CCT is designed to cope with climate change and overcome the current climate crisis the world is facing. Through clouds generated by absorbing seawater, the climate crisis regulates the weather by raining where there is a drought, absorbing clouds where heavy rainfalls, or reflecting solar radiation.
Second Prize
Wang Jue, Zhang Qian, Zhang Changsheng, Li Muchun, Xu Jing
from China
People are often afraid of tsunamis. Technological advances have not led to sufficient measures to withstand tsunamis. When a tsunami strikes, people are still helpless. The Pacific Rim, which is linked to all four major tectonic plates, has the highest tsunami rate in the world, with more frequent undersea fluctuations. For example, the volcanic eruption in Tonga on 14 January 2022 resulted in a tsunami threat to the entire Pacific Rim region.
It is therefore envisaged that a skyscraper will be built in front of Tonga’s long and narrow coastline. The aim was to reduce the biological and ecological damage caused by the tsunami. We use the edge wave effect of tsunamis to advance the tsunami wave so that the building is in the sea to dissipate it when it has not yet inundated the city.
Mangroves are woody plant communities in the intertidal zone of tropical and subtropical coasts, with developed root systems and staggering growth, which have the best effect on tsunami mitigation. Therefore, the skyscraper is inspired by the principle and mechanism of mangrove resistance to tsunamis, and consists of a single unit aggregated to form a vast complex along the coastline. Each cell consists of a bottom pillar and a top multi-level platform. The bottom pillar is made up of thick concrete columns that form a porous structure to dissipate the enormous force of the tsunami, while the upper platforms are of varying sizes, heights, and interconnections to carry people’s lives.
Third Prize
Michał Spólnik, Marcin Kitala
from Austria and Poland
New Spring: Agro-ecological Skyscraper
We live in a paradox – nowadays more food is produced than needed but the expansion of hunger is increasing. How is this possible?
Global food production relies greatly on an extremely small number of crop and livestock species. Grains are married to particular chemicals, becoming vulnerable to environmental changes, and lack immunity. Together with changes in how land and water resources are used, population growth, urbanization, and shifting food culture, this lack of crop diversity poses a threat to global food and nutrition security. For the sake of our society – and for the ones to come – we might like to rethink the ways we treat our land.
The proposed skyscraper is a large-scale device that connects nature, science, and social fields. It is an aggregation of garden modules – each belonging to a particular biome, containing distinct flora, soil, microorganisms, small animals, and microclimate.
Following the principles of agroecology, each proto-garden is experimental from the start, often bringing together plants that do not come together in the natural environment. It is particularly important when fighting climate change, where some damages cannot be reversed and a new solution and adaptation are needed.
Modules are seeds of future gardens, fields, or farmlands. When one is requested it can be easily dispatched and shipped to the destination, where it will help to restore the natural landscape. Modules can be added, removed, or replaced freely.
Hidden behind the envelope of modules and their timber supporting structure is the core, filled with hardware functions – seed and plant tissue banks, laboratories, lecture spaces, data centers, warehouses, and high-tech composters. The program is completed with meetings, discussions, and knowledge exchange events.
Pods are made with cross-laminated timber, which allows agile fabrication and a relatively repetitive process of assembly and disassembly. Strains of CLT linear elements branch out from the core towards the pods – finding their way in optimized load-bearing bundles. Elements of ladders placed upon particular elements stimulate activities of small animals, that roam around in their floating garden.
Honorable Mention
Haptic Architects, Ramboll Tomas Stokke, Shonn Mills
from United Kingdom and Singapore
The Regenerative Highrise is sited at Grønland, a multi-cultural inner-city borough of Oslo.
The proposed new highrise tower at Oslo’s Grønland metro station seeks to use large-scale development of the city as a means to repair or enhance the inner-city neighborhood. In the first instance, this is a site of unique potential, where the metro meets the river above and its adjacent cycle and riverwalk. As such the new tower becomes a vertical linkage of these existing and developing transport networks, most notably the increased use of the city’s waterways for electric ferries.
The tower structure reuses an existing highway viaduct at its base, creating active frontages spanning three levels: the canal and metro level; the high street, and the viaduct level. The base of the tower gives back to the city, providing cultural, leisure, and sports facilities for the inhabitants of the city. The highway viaduct is repurposed for leisure purposes, to ensure the embodied carbon of the existing structure does not go to waste.
The tower itself seeks to address the challenge of waste in the construction industry. Changing needs and standards often lead to relatively new buildings being demolished and rebuilt. The proposed tower employs regenerative design at its core, thus ensuring future flexibility for change.
A superstructure consisting of 3-story high structural decks, allows the tower to be reprogrammed over time. The triple-height sky villages are flexible and can accommodate a variety of uses, such as a single-story production space, two stories of office space, three residential floors, or even a row of terraced housing.
Yi Liu, Baichao Wang, Hao Zhang, YiHui Gao, ZongHao Yang, Shiliang Wang
from China
Changchun is one of the most important cities in China. At the beginning of the last century, urban designers of Changchun carried out the road network system with reference to the theory of Howard’s “Garden City”. The urban transportation in Changchun is a system formed by multiple city squares as the center and roads as the axis, which initially established the main roads in the urban area of Changchun, and this urban layout is still in use today.
With the economic development and population growth of Changchun, the advanced urban transportation system can no longer meet the needs of the city. Although the city square connects several main urban roads, it is very easy to cause traffic jams in the surrounding area of the square during the peak urban traffic hours. For many years, Changchun is one of the cities which has the highest urban traffic jam rates in China. The main framework of the city cannot be changed, and we urgently need to create a new method and model to solve this problem.
This design distributed a number of transportation centers in the busy urban squares in Changchun. The interior of these transportation centers includes an urban cable car system that extends in all directions, a three-dimensional green landscape, and a number of residential and commercial space units. People gather here and take the cable car to any parts of the city. The vertical green landscape system can absorb the automobile exhaust air. The movable and detachable residential and commercial units enrich the center’s commerce system and provide citizens with a convenient urban life.
Ron Krakovski, Talia Tsuk
from Israel
Tree Skyscraper In South Sudan
The main purpose of The Tree skyscraper is to provide accessible water to the villages of South Sudan. The Tree unifies the new community while providing it with water for agriculture, sanitation, and everyday needs.
South Sudan is located in northeastern Africa; it gained independence from the Republic of Sudan in 2011, making it the latest nation to be recognized by the United Nations. Conflicts have undermined the developmental gains achieved since independence and worsened the humanitarian situation. As a consequence, South Sudan remains caught in a web of fragility, economic stagnation, and instability a decade after independence. Poverty is ubiquitous and has been reinforced by a history of conflict, displacement, and shocks.
59% of the population of South Sudan lack proper access to clean water sources. Constant conflict and civil war, which began in 2013, Have led to the current water crisis in South Sudan. During the war, the nation’s water systems were deserted and demolished. 1 in 3 people use contaminated water daily, increasing the risk of infection by waterborne diseases. Currently, in South Sudan, 77% of children under the age of five die from diarrhea.
Zheng Xiangyuan
from China
Connecting Skyscrapers In Hong Kong Through Infrastructure
The population of Hong Kong has shown a continuous growth from 7,185,996 in 2015 to 7,496,981 in 2020. People have built skyscrapers in order to create more space on limited land. In the beginning, skyscrapers do provide more space for people, but with the increasing population, the number of skyscrapers will continue to increase, and eventually, they will fill the land of Hong Kong. How are we going to create new space for people to use when we can’t build new skyscrapers anymore?
Hong Kong is one of the cities with the highest population density in the world, its population density is 23.8 times the optimal urban population density. Only 1,106.66k㎡ of land carries 7,496,981 people, Nearly 80% of them live in coastal areas, which make up only 15 percent of Hong Kong’s total area. Over the past decade, Hong Kong’s population has grown by an average of 0.8% per year. Hong Kong faces a very serious population problem. As the population continues to increase, the average living space of people will continue to decrease. How to create more space in a limited area has become a serious problem for us to think about.
Yunheng Fan, Baoying Liu, Rongwei Gao, Junliang Liu
from China
Urbanization is an important symbol of a country’s transition from a backward agricultural society to modernization, and China is undergoing an important transformation of urbanization. Migrant workers, a discriminatory and self-contradictory title, deeply reflect their status of “marginal people,” the main force of urban construction in China. They work in cities but do not have urban hukou, or household registration, and do not enjoy social security. They make great contributions to the city, they yearn for the city, but are not accepted by the city and are free from mainstream society.
The migrant worker community gathers these workers (often called “drifters”) together and the collective living allows them to gradually blend into the society. At the same time, the Urban Condenser serves as a cohesive device for the city, allowing urban residents and migrant workers to intermingle. With community, city, migrant workers, residents, and other dimensions of identity as the object, and with lifestyle, tourism, community mechanism, and other connections within the community as the link, the Urban Condenser builds a “super community” to stimulate social development.
Wang Changsi, Guo Fang, SiYuan Zhang
from China
With the continuous expansion of the city scale and the continuous increase of the population, the “urban diseases” that are similar in the major cities have appeared. This design focuses on the problem of urban ecological distribution and utilization. The architect hopes to make the city natural through his own design. The organic combination of ecology and urban human ecology will form a self-sufficient urban ecological system that can make full use of clean natural energy to realize residential, office, commercial, and transportation activities.
The design is firstly designed as a single unit based on the needs of residents and is divided into two main functional systems: commercial and residential. The monomers in the two systems are designed separately, but they all follow the same rules: the spatial arrangement of the monomers is carried out through a parametric program, and all the monomers will be logically searched for their 3D spatial positions: 1. The secondary monomers are directed to Higher-level monomers that are close together, 2. The same monomers keep a sufficient distance, 3. There is a minimum distance between different monomers. Through these three logical building units, it will find its own reasonable position in the space. When the two systems are stabilized, structural reorganization is carried out to form a new complete system.
Christopher Tanihaha, Vincentius Kevin Aditya, Arnetta Hamijoyo, Christina Putri Larasati, Evan Januar, Gavrila Mandy Kahuni, Eugenia Jessica, Felia Alexandra Linoh, Luciana Augusta, Gregorius Christian, Reynaldi Daud
from Indonesia
FUNG(S)I: The Vanguard Of Habitat Restoration
Sinking land has become inevitable. It is mainly caused by the increase of seawater level and got worse by the decreasing underground water table that is happening simultaneously. Sinking land causes land scarcity which makes coastal residents around the world lose their homes. According to BBC News in 2018, the fastest-sinking city in the world in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta is sinking by an average of 1-15cm a year and nearly half the land now sits below sea level. The dramatic rate of sinking is partly down to the excessive extraction of groundwater for drinking water and everyday hygiene purposes by city dwellers. Piped water is not reliable and hardly available in most areas so people have no choice but to resort to pumping water from the aquifers deep underground. So the main goal is to be a buffer that acts as a vessel for ex-dwellers of the sinking city that also provides potable water for the remaining citizens on land at the same time.
Wanjing Wang, Zhenhao Chen, Minghui Sang, Xiaoran Xiong, Kaifeng Fan
from China
Cure For Desertification Skyscraper
According to reporters, Dunhuang’s first and last green barrier against sand storms run by Dunhuang Yangguan forest farm, which once owned about 20000 acres of Forests belt, has encountered large-scale “shaved head” in recent ten years. The sweat of several generations of local people have wasted, and the ecological disaster of “green retreat, sand advance, desert pressing” reappears in Dunhuang.
All the protective forest lands cut down in the forest farm are used to plant grapes with high water consumption and frequent disturbance of the surface soil layer. At present, grape production has become the pillar industry of the forest farm. However, the problem is that after planting grapes, it will not only fail to prevent and fix sand but also may consume the scarce water resources and aggravate the risk of desertification.
So we come up with the consumption- how can we galvanize the local economy and achieve the betterment of people’s lives without aggravating sand storms and harming present forest barriers through the form of skyscrapers?
Yu Liu, Junjie Hou, Jiaxi Shi, Hailin Wu, Ronghui Yang, Jiang An
from China
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, masks were one of the most reliable and direct methods for people to deal with urban air pollution; in the past two years, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the portability of masks and their impact on blocking the entry of air through breathing makes it a must-have for people traveling.
With the development of China’s industry, the frequency of China’s urban PM2.5 index exceeding 400 has increased. Masks can effectively reduce the number of harmful substances people inhale when exposed to a high PM2.5 index.
The extensive use of disposable masks also brings pollution problems. First of all, the raw materials of masks are mainly non-woven fabrics made of high melting index polypropylene materials. This material is derived from petroleum, which will cause air pollution during the production process; secondly, waste masks will flow into the sea with rainwater without incineration, threatening the marine ecological balance.
Building space has been a place where human beings gather to engage in production and living since ancient times. How to reduce the pollution of masks to the environment while making more people less affected by COVID-19、PM2.5 and pollution through architectural design?
Zelun Wang, Shengwu Fan, Manqian Lin
from China
The Problem
Nine out of 10 people around the world breathe polluted air, according to a report released this year by the World Health Organization. Indoor and outdoor air pollution causes 7 million deaths worldwide each year and is responsible for 24 percent of stroke deaths, 29 percent of lung cancer deaths, 25 percent of heart disease, and 43 percent of other lung diseases. Air pollution has become a major killer of human society.
Site Selection
More than half of the world’s most polluted cities are in India, with New Delhi firmly in the top spot. Pollution kills countless people in New Delhi every year. Especially in winter every year, PM2.5 index reaches 20 times the safe limit.
The Solution
We believe that the ban and school closures issued by the Indian government cannot fundamentally solve the problem. Cities still need to develop and operate, and the generation of PM2.5 should be stopped at the source. We blame, therefore, the most serious pollution source——traffic pollution, traffic intersection are set on the city air purifier skyscrapers, the generation of PM2.5 four kinds of reaction gas absorption and filtration, prevent reaction PM2.5, at the same time can also be useful, useless to the construction of power supply, to fertilize the vertical greening, The whole building forms a closed system to purify and regenerate polluted air.
Sacha Cudré-Mauroux, Nils Hayoz, Bart Oosterhoff, Thomas Wenzel
from Switzerland
Loss of Earth’s surface
With more than one hundred open-pit mines in the world, a large area of the earth’s surface is unusable after closing.
The loss of a city’s identity
Our skyscraper was designed for the pit mine of the Australian city of Kalgoorlie. This nineteenth-century city was created and shaped by gold mining and to this day the entire economy and identity operate on the mining of gold and nickel. When the mine is exhausted, and it is no longer profitable to continue the mining process, Kalgoorlie will have no future and will lose its identity.
The solution
We want to transform the former wasteland into the center of a vibrant city providing housing, public institutions, green space, and agricultural areas like an oasis in the desert. The unique properties of the given topography open opportunities for a new and sustainable way of living. We use the thermal mass of the benches to provide thermal comfort to buildings and use different soil layers for multiple functions such as living, recreation, and agriculture while giving space to the people, increasing biodiversity, and restoring the natural water cycle.
Our new typology of skyscrapers serves as a vertical street connecting the different layers of benches in the mine. At the same time, it houses public institutions and services. The building serves as the main tool for effective daylight management. The steep walls of the mine resulted in unique shadow effects during the day. Our skyscraper functions as a light guidance system providing the over-shadowed area with natural daylight when needed, protecting the over-heated areas from direct sunlight, and using this as a sustainable energy source in the summer months. The core of the skyscraper functions as a passive ventilation system for the whole community.
Mohammad Pirdavari
from Portugal
Residential Flying Unit Nest Skyscraper
The construction of a villa is considered a great way to facilitate vacation accommodations for any family, to easily frequent their trips. Site locations for villas are most of the time, a place in the heart of pleasant natural resources, which construction of a villa, would ruin the existing ecosystem. In addition, having a traditional villa will cost a fortune, which is multiplied considering the fact that people want to idealize their villa, as their dream house! Limitations of the construction industry, in terms of land use, and lack of access to distant places, are also insurmountable. These are all just a gist of the reasons why the construction of a villa should be revised meticulously. This design of mine is a state-of-the-art, idea, which is a great way to overcome these challenges and create a new exceptional viewpoint. A self-sufficient, flying unit, creates a totally different living experience for the residents, in which they are free to choose their ideal climatically destination, no difference how high or low, how cold or warm! An ideal accommodation, which does not add up the expenses, because it gets charged via the solar cells of the facade, and also via the connected nest. A brilliant, eco-friendly, idea that tears down mental barriers as well as economic and environmental limitations.
Shuzhan Liu, Siang Duan, Yimin Gao, Jingyi Li, Shiliang Wang
from China
Skyscraper Injects New Life To Tiankeng
The design site is located in a Tiankeng in Shaotong City, Yunnan Province, where villagers have lived for generations. According to a legend, the ancestors of the villagers in Tiankeng lived here in order to avoid war. With the development of the times, problems gradually emerged, causing many inconveniences to the local villagers.
Local dilemma
Residents have a low standard of living and lack infrastructures such as education, medical care, and culture. The industrial system is monotonous, and the industrial system needs to be optimized. The development of urbanization and the emigration of villagers have caused the traditional village to be on the verge of extinction. The outlying location and inconvenient transportation restrict economic development.
Design ideas
The unique geographical conditions of Tiankeng have formed a microclimate suitable for the growth of different herbs. By filling the Tiankeng with spherical units to increase the functional mix of Tiankeng, create a new agricultural model of the “herbal industry” integrating “research, production, processing and marketing”, upgrading the industrial system, promoting economic development, and improving the living standards of villagers. At the same time, infrastructure such as education, medical care, theater, etc. will be increased and opened to surrounding villages. Designed an innovation research center in the countryside, strengthening the connection between the two and achieving mutual benefit.
Hamidreza Esmailnazari, Hosein Mosavi, Amir Hossein Saeedi Majd, Hossein Amery, Hossein Arshadi Soufiani, Ali Jamali, Maryam Baharvandi
from Sweden
Isfahan is a city in the middle of the desert in Iran and it is situated on the north side of the Zayandeh River. The city retains much of its history, which has developed between the 9th and 18th centuries. It is famous for its Persian architecture and its history.
For centuries Isfahan city had been an oasis settlement, by dint of its surrounding fertile lands and prosperity. After the 1980s, the demand for water for industrial usage has raised gradually. The creation of large steelworks and other new industries along with the growing population, disable the scarce water resources to be utilized primarily for agriculture and now, the Zayandeh River cannot supply all the agriculture’s land anymore. The farmers in Isfahan have protested against the diversion of water from the Zayandeh River to supply other areas, leaving their farms dry and threatening their livelihoods. The violent crackdown on protests was answered to them by the government in 2021. From another point of view in this historical region, which has extreme weather, architecture ways widely used for finding passive ways to solve relation between humans and nature. These architectural ways are bound with the culture and identity of the local people. Their lifestyle has formed inside different types of shelters to protect them in extreme weather situations.
Kaiyu Chen, Yong Lin, Ziyi Li, Zhipeng Tao
from China
The City Chloroplast: A Skyscrapers That Absorbs CO₂ And Converts It Into Starch
Over the past years, the environmental issues due to carbon emissions have been the focus of many countries around the world. The emissions in North America and Europe have been stable, while the developing countries in Asia, South America, and Africa are facing increasing air pollution problems with economic growth and urbanization.
Similar reasons caused the increased carbon concentration in different countries. Rapid urbanization brings a higher demand for electricity and heating, and the CO₂ emissions from electronic appliances/equipment and transportation are the major sources of carbon emission.
In order to address the environmental issue due to greenhouse gas emissions, and to improve our living conditions, different countries are applying various methods to eliminate carbon emissions and improve air quality. The Chinese government is advocating the carbon emission control policy, proposing the strategic goals of “Carbon Peak” in 2030, and “Carbon Neutrality” in 2050.
Xueer Wang
from China
Sanctuary Above The Tomb: Inhabiting Radioactive Marshall Islands
The inhabitants of the Marshall Islands are the most direct victims of the two major threats facing humanity-nuclear weapons and climate change. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs on, in, and over the Marshall Islands, expelled hundreds of people from their homes, and buried more than 3.1 million cubic feet of radioactive soil on one of the atolls, covering it with cement-forming what the locals call “The Tomb”. For decades, the residents of Marshall depended on foreign aid to survive.
Nowadays, climate change and sea-level rise not only accelerate the leakage of radioactive materials but also bring new threats to these indigenous people. a self-sufficient community system that provides clean water, food, and adequate infrastructure must be provided to the local residents.
Karan Jain, Vishwal Ram Gowda
from India
MERU: Center For Organic Parallel Development
Meru, it means the abode of gods at the center of the universe, the project brings together the context with those inhabiting it. The goal is to create organic growth within a community by the usage of progressive improvements, sort of like how a frog doesn’t realize its being boiled in water.
Currently in Delhi, among many problems is the incredulous amount of waste that is produced by the city and in tandem with that, its relation and allocation with the slums of Delhi. Among the two the former isn’t being given enough treatment and the latter seems impossible without the displacement of a large population of people. After contemplation one thinks that such a feat is impossible without there being the availability of such a large vacant amount of space. But what one, can do in such a situation is to set up a situation of parallel organic growth, this allows for the infrastructure to creep into an area with such rich culture and history while also allowing the area to creep into the infrastructure allowing for both the former and the latter to develop off of each other, pushing the development of the context at an exponential rate.
To achieve this the context and the people within should be able to feed off of each other, and so the MCD dump yard in Bhalswa new Delhi seems like the perfect site as the dump yard has been accumulating waste for a long time and as such depreciating the value of anything around it, which in turn made it ideal for laborers and slum dwellings to develop.
Chien-Ching Su
from Taiwan
Beeswax Skyscraper: A Tower Made By Cooperating With A Swarm Of Bees
Insects, accounting for 80% of animal life on Earth, are the most diverse and largest group on Earth. However, both their diversities and numbers are declining around the globe due to habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. Without effective conservation measures, not only food shortage becomes serious because lots of pollinators disappear, but the whole ecological balance on the planet will break. The main goals of the project are to conserve insects’ diversity and restore their population. With artificial frameworks and the help of bees, the high-rise structure will be built as an insect habitat.
The inspiration for the design comes from a Slovakian Artist, Tomáš Libertíny, who cooperates with a swarm of bees to create many striking sculptures. The most famous beeswax sculpture in his works is the Nefertiti bust, finished by 60,000 bees cooperation. The question is – how does he produce these works “made by bees?” Firstly, he prints a 3D artificial framework of the sculpture, which encourages bees to build their hive above the framework. Then, he spreads some sugar to help worker bees work efficiently. After a while, bees will complete a striking sculpture made with beeswax.
Han-Yu Lai, Wei-Qun Cai, Chun-Yi Yeh
from Taiwan
OASIS-Æ2030: Desertification Restoration Protective Membrane
In 2008 the FAO reported that 20% of all cultivated areas, 30% of forests, and 10% of grasslands are degrading. 52% of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation and 12 million hectares of once productive land are lost to desertification per annum. Nearly 1.5 billion people depend directly on degrading land for their livelihoods, most of them in the so-called ‘developing world’. Land degradation leads to food insecurity which can, in turn, lead to conflict, migration, and inevitably, the loss of biodiversity. Less tangible, but no less significant is that the process of degradation not only erodes the land, it also corrodes the spirit of communities watching their homelands turn into a wasteland.
Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by variations in climate and human activities. These drylands are home to over a third of the entire human population and they occupy nearly half of Earth’s land area. Some 10 to 20% of drylands are already degraded, and ongoing desertification threatens the world’s poorest populations and the prospects of poverty reduction. Therefore, desertification is one of the greatest environmental challenges today and a major barrier to meeting basic human needs in drylands.
Climate change and human overexploitation have led to a growing problem of desertification and land degradation. Oasis’s attempt to prevent direct contact between sand and dust from planting grounds by blocking dust from sandstorms in the desert has been prevented. The water is stored using an air filter converter in the center of the tower, and the water is distributed equally to the land by controlling a central control room at the top of the tower. Because desert areas have unstable climates and rapid environmental changes, Oasis changes according to different climatic conditions. The air and water filtration system will achieve the best benefits through contraction and linkage, and ultimately achieve the purpose of environmental restoration.
Ahmed Helal
from United States
Since the construction of the Equitable Life Assurance Building in 1820, the office tower has become synonymous with white-collar productivity in New York City. In the subsequent 200 years, some 450 million square feet of office space has been constructed in the five boroughs, constituting over 10% of all office space within the United States. It wasn’t until the proliferation of the internet, collaborative communication platforms, and co-working spaces, that the office began to decentralize. Then, in 2020, the Global Coronavirus Pandemic completely disrupted the corporate hierarchy, as White-Collar America transitioned to working from home, it became evident that the workforce could remain productive outside the office. It is now clear that there will never be a full return to pre-Covid workplace normalcy. This paradigm shift has rendered the commercial office tower obsolete. If this typology no longer holds value, then what should we do with the obsolete building stock? To simply demolish it would be wasteful, arrogant, and short-sighted, for two reasons. First, all constructions have inherent value simply in that they exist and were an expenditure of finite resources that can never be replaced. To dispose of them is to erase those resources forever. New York City alone produces over 3 million tons of construction waste annually, only 35% of which is returned to the production stream. Second, it is precisely this outdated building stock that gives New York its identity. The only path forward is adaptive reuse – to transform these antiquated buildings into vibrant and essential structures that serve to alleviate the two fundamental architectural crises in the city: housing and public space. – This proposal is an example of adaptive reuse design, changing landmarked office skyscrapers like the AT&T Building by Philip Johnson, currently known as 550 Madison, to residential spaces that prioritize tenants and the local community, offering an accessible well-rounded live, work, and play lifestyle through the design and programming of homes and public spaces.
