Every year, the architecture magazine eVolo asks designers to submit avant-garde, otherworldly takes on the skyscraper. They recently announced the winners of the annual contest, and the results, as usual, are deliciously absurd. A set of truly surreal renderings, eVolo's picks include a building that takes the "sky" in "skyscraper" quite literally and actually reaches the clouds, a 3D printed world where the Hollywood sign is pastel pink, and several environmentally conscious designs with big goals, like reversing global warming, for example. Navigating through the archibabble proved challenging, but we have compiled the three winners and six honorable mentions, below.
Essence Skyscraper
First Place
↑ Created by Poland-based BOMP, the Essence Skyscraper was designed as a place to "briefly escape urban life" and is divided into 11 natural landscapes, including spaces with water floors, giant fish tanks, and jungle areas.
Invisible Perception: Shanty-Scraper
Second Place
↑ Suraksha Bhatla and Sharan Sundar designed this skyscraper so the inhabitants of Chennai, India's slum would have a space to live, work, and play. For materials, skyscraper will use recycled construction debris, including pipes, metal sheets, and locally sourced timber.
Cybertopia
Third Place
↑ The full name for Egor Orlov's project is "Cybertopia: Future of an Architecture Space, Death of Analogous Cities." It's a trippy "combination of digital and physical worlds" where the Hollywood sign is pastel pink and spaces are printed on 3D printers.
Limestone Skyscrapers
Honorable Mention
↑Malaysian designers Jethro Koi Lik Wai and Quah Zheng Wei actually constructed buildings to fit into hills, using the mining blasted shell of limestone mountains to mold glass structures into the landscape.
Tower of Refuge
Honorable Mention
↑ Designed by Qidan Chen from China, the Tower of Refuge was inspired by endangered animals and plants, and was made as a haven that can filter water and air and reallocate sunlight as a way to somehow help threatened species. The project description also mentions Noah's ark.
Air Monument: Atmosphere Database
Honorable Mention
↑ Designed by Shi Yuqing, Hu Yifei, Zhang Juntong, Sheng Zifeng, and He Yanan from China, this project was created to be a library for studying "atmosphere components." The UFO-like structure is so tall it would offer that cloud view you get on airplanes.
Reversal Strategy
Honorable Mention
↑Italy's Luigi Bertazzoni and Paolo Giacomo Vasino have some big goals: reverse global warming and the collapse of concrete cities. Their project also offers a system of building on top of buildings, or "reversing figure ground."
Vertical Factories in New York
Honorable Mention
↑Stuart Beattie's project looks at New York's growing population dilemma, and offers an alternative to "inefficient horizontal industrial sprawl." His vertical factory along the Greenpoint coastline is meant to re-integrate manufacturing in Brooklyn. How that will affect NY's massive population crisis is not totally clear.
Noah Oasis: Rig to Vertical Bio-Habitat
Honorable Mention
↑Ma Yidong, Zhu Zhonghui, Qin Zhengyu, and Jiang Zhe's project transforms offshore oil rigs into giant bio-habitats or ocean skyscrapers. They don't exactly blend into the scenery, but apparently they would provide a habitat for marine life and birds and could be a shelter in any future spill disasters.
· Winners 2015 eVolo Skyscraper Competition [eVolo]
· 16 Delirious Renderings From eVolo's Skyscraper Contest [Curbed National]
· All Architectural Craziness posts [Curbed National]