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eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of its 2015 Skyscraper Competition.  The award was established in 2006 to recognize outstanding ideas for vertical living; since then, more than 6,000 entries have envisioned the future of building high.  These ideas, through their 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.

First Place- Essence Skyscraper

Ewa Odyjas, Agnieszka Morga, Konrad Basan, Jakub Pudo
Poland

Away from everyday routines, in a dense city center, a secret garden that combines architecture and a nature is born. The main goal of this project is to position non-architectural phenomena in an urban fabric.  An inspiration rooted in nature allowed to form a representation of external worlds in the shape of a vertical structure. Overlapping landscapes like an ocean, a jungle, a cave or a waterfall will stimulate a diverse and complex range of visual, acoustic, thermal, olfactory, and kinesthetic experiences.

The main body of the building is divided into 11 natural landscapes. They are meant to form an environmentally justified sequence open to the public that includes extensive open floor plans that form spectacular spaces with water floors, fish tanks lifted up to 30 meters above ground, and jungle areas among others natural scenarios. The sequence landscapes might become a variable set of routes dedicated to different shades of adventure.

Second Place- Shanty-Scaper

Suraksha Bhatla, Sharan Sundar
India

Unrecognized slums have effectively become akin to an invisible Chennai, largely ignored by the service provision agencies. As urban planners and architects we must make a conscious decision to improve the quality of life of squatters (shelter, services & livelihood) by applying principles of sustainable urbanism. The need of the hour is a reimagination of the existing land parcels, growth and infrastructural burden squatters place on the city’s civic supplies. This begs the question – Will the cities of the future be filled with vertical slums? Informal settlements and the paucity of land parcels can no longer be ignored & the complexities of resettlement will force slum dwellers themselves to build higher using locally available, structurally sound, recyclable materials accommodating themselves into organised communities.

Shanty-Scraper aspires to provide a unique solution for the fishermen of Nochikuppam located at Marina bay beach. The vertical squatter structure predominately is comprised of post-construction debris such as pipes and reinforcement bars that crucially articulate the structural stability. Recycled corrugated metal sheets, regionally sourced timber & thatch mould the enclosure of each dwelling profile and lend to their vernacular language. The double height semi enclosures serve as utility yards & social gathering spaces. The vertical transportation is fragmented into multiple plank lifts that are constructed from a simple mechanically driven lever & pulley contraption. The rhythmic timber lattice membrane structure at the ground level, houses the public sea food market, & forms the first level of defence against future tsunamis. The high rise typology serves as a vantage point for the fishermen to gauge high risk waters & during emergencies…

More on both these projects, on the other honorees, and on the competition at “Winners 2015 eVolo Skyscraper Competition.”

* Federico Garcia Lorca

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As we get high, we might spare a thought for Albrecht Dürer; he died on this date in 1528.  Renown as a painter and a print-maker,  Dürer was also a mathematician and theorist who wrote a four volume treatise on geometry and its applications, Four Books on Measurement (Underweysung der Messung mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheytor Instructions for Measuring with Compass and Ruler).  Book Three applies the principles of geometry to architecture (along with engineering and typography).

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Dürer, self-portrait

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