25 Futuristic Skyscraper Designs That Will Blow Your Mind
Established
in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas that
redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials,
programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on
globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. This is
also an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the
individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive
vertical community. The award seeks to discover young talent, whose ideas will
change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural
and built environments.
The first
place was awarded to Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao and Dongbai Song from China
for their project “Himalaya Water Tower”. The proposal is a skyscraper located
high in the Himalayan mountain range that stores water and helps regulate its
dispersal to the land below as the mountains’ natural supplies dry up. The
skyscraper, which can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy
season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for future use.
The second
place was awarded to Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, and Zihan Wang from
China for their project “Mountain Band-Aid”, a design that seeks to
simultaneously return the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and
work as it restores the ecology of the Yunnan mountain range.
The
recipient of the third place is Lin Yu-Ta from the Taiwan for a
“Vertical Landfill” to be located in the largest cities around the globe, both
as a reminder of the outrageous amount of garbage that we produce and as a
power plant that harvests energy from waste decomposition.
1.
Himalaya Water Tower
First Place
2012 Skyscraper Competition
Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao, Dongbai Song
China
Housed within 55,000 glaciers in the Himalaya Mountains sits 40
percent of the world’s fresh water. The massive ice sheets are melting at a
faster-than-ever pace due to climate change, posing possible dire consequences
for the continent of Asia and the entire world stand, and especially for the
villages and cities that sit on the seven rivers that come are fed from the
Himalayas’ runoff as they respond with erratic flooding or drought.
The
“Himalaya Water Tower” is a skyscraper located high in the mountain range that
serves to store water and helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the
mountains’ natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which can be replicated en
masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice
and store it for future use. The water distribution schedule will evolve with
the needs of residents below; while it can be used to help in times of current
drought, it’s also meant to store plentiful water for future generations.
