eVolo Announces 2018 Skyscraper Competition Winners

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

eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of its 2018 Skyscraper Competition. Now in its 13th year, the annual award was established to recognize “visionary ideas for building [high-rise] projects 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.”

This year, 3 winners and 27 honorable mentions were selected from a pool of 526 entries. Among this year’s winners are a foldable skyscraper inspired by origami, an urban building for rice farming, and a prototype for vertical housing in areas damaged by wildfires.

First Place

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

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

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

The objective of this proposal is to restore the traditional interactions between Jinja (Japanese Shinto Shrine) and local people by reterritorializing a busy urban corner in Ginza, Tokyo with a vertically organized Jinja cum rice-farming complex.

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

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.

Honorable Mentions

Levitated Broadway – Los Angeles / Kaiyu Xi, Fan Wu

Levitated Broadway – Los Angeles. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Sand Dam Anti-desertification Skyscraper / Jiangchen Hu, Yining Bei, Xiayu Zhao, Mingwen Zhang

Sand Dam: Anti-desertification Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

The Urban Lung: Timber Skyscraper / Ryan Gormley

The Urban Lung: Timber Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Saltscraper in India / Kartik Misra, Krishan Sharma, Dewesh Agrawal, Kritika Kharbanda

Saltscraper in India. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Civilization 0.000: Floating Power Station / Dimo Ivanov

Civilization 0.000: Floating Power Station. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Manhattan of the Desert / Estelle Filliat, Charlotte Ferreux, Duc Truong, Elias Vogel

Manhattan of the Desert. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Ever-changing Skyscraper for Post-capitalism World / Ngai Hang WU, Han-Hsun, Hsieh, Man Nguyen

Ever-changing Skyscraper for Post-capitalism World. Image Courtesy of eVolo

River Square: Water Purification Skyscraper in India / Kang Tae Hwan, Kim Min Jeong, Yun Seo Jun, Lee Se Won

River Square: Water Purification Skyscraper in India. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Revealing the Boundries / Jun Ho Han, Yungi Jung

Revealing the Boundries. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Vapolator: Seawater Extraction Skyscraper / Seunghwan Jung, Ryeojin Jeon

Vapolator: Seawater Extraction Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Synctopia: Air Purification Skyscraper for Tehran / Golnaz Mayel Afshar, Faranak Momeni Azandaryani

Synctopia: Air Purification Skyscraper for Tehran. Image Courtesy of eVolo

LAX 2.0: The Vertical Airport / Jonathan Ortega

LAX 2.0: The Vertical Airport. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Vertical Cemetery / GuoChao Deng, QingMing Xiao, Yuan Feng, Liwei Shen, Qin Xiong

Vertical Cemetery. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Icemill Skyscraper: Pure Water for Global Sustainability / Katarzyna Przybyła

Icemill Skyscraper: Pure Water for Global Sustainability. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Project 1111: Sustainable Vertical City / Philip Nikandrov, Stepan Kukharskiy, Aleksandr Muraviev, Ivan Mylnikov, Vadim Zamula, Vladimir Travush

Project 1111: Sustainable Vertical City. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Manhattan Ridge: Affordable Housing for Commuters / Zhenjia Wang, Xiayi Li

Manhattan Ridge: Affordable Housing for Commuters. Image Courtesy of eVolo

City Rehab – Detroit / Yassin Nour Al-tubor, Fawzi Bata, Boran Al-Amro, Yazeed Balqar

City Rehab – Detroit. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Volcanic Tower / Chunyang Li, Shuai Yang, Zhenhang Zhao, Ruize Xiao, Yuequn Wang

Volcanic Tower. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Hong Kong 2.0 / Huy Bui, Howard Mack

Hong Kong 2.0. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Amman Living Quary / Baraa Kawasmi, Amal Tatfi

Amman Living Quary. Image Courtesy of eVolo

E Mare Libertas: Skyscraper on Water / Alexander Nikolas Walzer

E Mare Libertas: Skyscraper on Water. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Earth Healer Skyscraper / Dong Jingzhe , Li Boyu , Zhang Zihan , Sun Zhe , Wu Yilun , Yu Yang , Zhang Haohao

Earth Healer Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

The Reincarnation: Buddhist Skyscraper / QiLong Wu, WuHong Fang, HuiFang Duan, HuiChen Bao

The Reincarnation: Buddhist Skyscraper. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Northern Anticline: Arctic Skyscraper-City / BoSheng Liu, Jon Rankin, Bryan Daily

Northern Anticline: Arctic Skyscraper-City. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Community as a Cloud / Keon Hee Lee, Dong Hyun Kim, Elicia Jiwoo Eom

Community as a Cloud. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Additive Effect: 3D-printed Skyscrapers / Jinzi Wei, Yiliang Shao

Additive Effect: 3D-printed Skyscrapers. Image Courtesy of eVolo

Liulin Skyscraper: Communist Experience Center / Peitong Liu

Liulin Skyscraper: Communist Experience Center. Image Courtesy of eVolo

This year’s jury consisted of:

• Vishaan Chakrabarti, Principal, PAU
• Moon Hoon, Principal, Moon Hoon
• Eric Höweler, Principal, Höweler + Yoon
• Chris Precht, Principal, PENDA
• James Ramsey, Principal, Raad Studio
• Dayong Sun, Principal, PENDA

Learn more about the competitions and read detailed project descriptions, here.

News via eVolo

eVolo Announces 2017 Skyscraper Competition Winners

eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of its 2017 Skyscraper Competition. Now in its 12th year, the annual award was established to recognize "visionary ideas for building [high-rise] projects 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."