15 Stunning Skyscraper Concepts
In this post i’ll present to you some of the greatest building concepts of 2011, that are also this year’s finalists for eVolo Magazine’s Skyscraper Competition. The architecture and concept ideas are really fascinating, and you can see how the architects pushed the limits and came up with some incredible and innovative superstructures.
There are various and really different structures you can notice in this post, and is all about imagination and creating new purposes for existing structures. The diversity extends from a vertical farm skyscraper complete with cows and chickens to an abandoned oil rig turned chic urban habitat, so this year’s competition was all about imagining fully sustainable vertical environments and creating some great and imposing cutting edge concepts.
1.Agro-Housing Towers, Jerusalem – Michael Leef, Tahel Shaar
The Agro-Housing Towers has been designed by Michael Leef and Tahel Shaar and the concept of the architects was to create new housing towers in a new way, in order to create the illusion that the system grows vertically with agricultural fields on the southern facade.
The concept idea of this building was to conceptualize the city in a new way, as an organism, and to enrich the urban environment. These towers are designed according to the annual sun movement in order to allow agriculture to exist vertically in various medias and techniques, and looks like they grow from the new urban structure. The growing ramps within the steel structure provide maximum sun light at different points without breaking continuity.
2.Hamburg Skyscraper, Hamburg – Julia-Elise Hoins, Arnd-Benedikt Willert-Klasing, David Blezinger, Nikolaus Türk
The Hamburg Skyscraper has been designed by Julia-Elise Hoins, Arnd-Benedikt Willert-Klasing, David Blezinger and Nikolaus Türk architects and will be located in Germany’s second largest city, Hamburg.
There’s a law in Hamburg that says the buildings and new developments cannot be higher than its tallest cathedral. And because every rule has an exception, there’s also one exception for this one, and it applies in one district known as HafenCity, where skyscrapers are allowed. The idea of this project is to create a beautiful mixed-use towers complex with a small footprint that allows the public to move freely and enjoy the ground plan amenities. Due to its innovative geometry, where at the bottom the shorter façades are twisted to the outside and the larger ones open up to the center, the building offers a retreat from the traffic noise. Also, the facade seems like it disappears in the sky while stating its presence with shiny gold gradients.
3.FLEXmod Skyscraper, USA – Nick Ochoa, Sabrina Brenner, Michael Krause
The FLEXmod Skyscraper has been desgned by Nick Ochoa, Sabrina Brenner and Michael Krause architect and is a lightweight mutable structure that can be sculpted to desired shape, function, and size.
The idea of this project is that the architecture becomes the symbol of the owner. The system allows to be utilized not only universally but also as either individual units or combined, to create spaces and structures that extends to infinity. Additional FLEXmod units dedicated to housing and support spaces plug into the superstructure. The FLEXmod Skyscraper represents a model for a movement representational of sustainability, where units are only added as necessary, being designed by the needs of the inhabitants.
FLEXmod Skyscraper represents a mixed program of hotel, offices, and housing, but it also includes cultural and public spaces located in the middle section. The facade beautifully changes its appearance through light and reflections, and it looks like dissolves in the sky in shiny gold gradients.
4.RuralScraper – Zsuzsanna Kiss-Gal, Gergely Kiss-Gal, Margo Petro, & Peter Debreczeni
The RuralScraper has been designed by Zsuzsanna Kiss-Gal, Gergely Kiss-Gal, Margo Petro and Peter Debreczeni architects and is an agrarian structure that supports vertical harvesting zones. Each of these harvesting zones are dedicated to a farmer specializing in alternative cultivation systems such as glasshouse culture, soil-less culture, and plastic bag cultivation.
This new building will not only provide housing to the farmers, but it will also serve as market to the community, so the food transportation costs and pollution will be eliminated. This innovative project also proposes farmland attached to the facades of the structure while the interior will serve not only as housing but also marketplace.
5.Tree Skyscraper, Montpellier – Eric Gangaye, Frédéric Velaye Andy, Alvin Pakeeroo, Yann Terrer, & Thomas Liaigre
The Tree Skyscraper has been designed by Eric Gangaye, Frédéric Velaye Andy, Alvin Pakeeroo, Yann Terrer and Thomas Liaigre architects and represents a proposal to use a vertical structure to link several horizontal isolated neighborhoods of the city.
This incredible building connects to Montepellier’s urban nodes through five main branches, that serve as circulation pathways between the city and the new skyscraper. The Tree Skyscraper building is focused on sustainability with solar panels, wind turbines, water collection systems, and hanging gardens at different levels.
6.Peruvian Capital, Lima – Luis Longhi, Christian Bottger, & Carla Tamariz
The Peruvian Capital project has been designed by Luis Longhi, Christian Bottger and Carla Tamariz architects and represents an innovative “smart and creative” way of living but also an attempt that is trying to prevent the city to follow the negative models developed in post-modern metropolises.
The project represents the actual city of Lima extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Andes where water treatment plants will be located to transform salt water into potable water. The main components of this skyscraper are the “Transitional places”, “agricultural areas” and “water reservoirs”. The structure was influenced by shapes found in nature, with an organic structural order.
7.Containers Skyscraper – Luca D’Amico, Luca Tesio
The Containers Skyscraper project has been designed by Luca D’Amicoa and Luca Tesio architects and represents a new way of housing inspired by nomads. The idea is to provide this nomad housing to this specific type of urban dweller.
The structure consist of an exoskeleton where regular shipping containers transformed into apartment units plug-in. Its structure provides basic infrastructure as well as recreational areas, and the habitable units can be transported to almost every large city worldwide providing a sense of “home” to these modern urban nomads. The structure is based on a dense mesh of steel beams in order to provide maximum rigidity and to create a micro-city inside the skyscraper, just like an indoor/outdoor space used for recreational and social activities.
8.Oil Rig Habitat -Ku Yee Kee & Hor Sue-Wern
The Oil Rig Habitat has been designed by Ku Yee Kee & Hor Sue-Wern architects and its design regards the current environmental issues, most of them about abandoned oil rig structures all around the world. The plan is to explore the possibility of living on the oil rig, above and below the ocean level.
The concept idea of this project is to remediate this issues and transform them into livable hubs. This process will use green energy and create a sustainable urban habitat. It’s all about going green, that’s why there were used a large photovoltaic membrane for solar energy and wind turbines. Above the water will leave the general population, the in-between zone will be used for housing and recreational areas, and the underwater zone will be reserved for specialized researchers.
9.City-like Voronoi Skyscraper – André Serpa, Bernardo Daupiás Alves, Egle Bazaraite, Jutta Rentsch, Marco Braizinha
The City-like Voronoi Skyscraper has been designed by André Serpa, Bernardo Daupiás Alves, Egle Bazaraite, Jutta Rentsch and Marco Braizinha.
The concept idea of this project is to create a skyscraper that could be defined as a city by itself, and it tries to combine the vibrant life of the contemporary city with the tranquility of the suburbs. The central part of the structure which is conceived as the city, will host offices, commerce, entertainment, and transportation areas, while the edges of the structure will have the residential units. Also, large openings are available for recreational parks and other recreational areas. All levels of this building will communicate through a spiraling system of vertical transportation.
10.Hydro-thermal Skyscraper, Taipei – Wendy Teo Boon Ting & Linda Hagberg
The Hydro-thermal Skyscraper has been designed by Wendy Teo Boon Ting and Linda Hagberg architects and its purpose is to replace an existing river buffer wall with a filtering system.
The technology behind this system is based on the potential temperature difference between river water and the transport infrastructure. It cleans the polluted river water and creates usable energy by collecting energy from both the river current and from the surrounding transport systems which help turn the water to steam to power the turbine-generator system. The hot water and steam is also used in the landscape and Spa Hotel for aesthetic quality and hot baths, and depends on the flow of water from the river. The project is seeking to create a physical and mental connection between the city and nature, the proposal uses the water from the river to extract heat from the transportation infrastructure.
11.Underground Metropolis, China – Fan Shuning & Zhang Xin
The Underground Metropolis has been designed by Fan Shuning and Zhang Xin architects and the aim is to make use of the coal mines as an underground city where miners can have access to a better quality of life through modern housing and recreational areas. This underground metropolis will provide an overall better quality of life to coalminers, and house concert halls, theaters, housing, and even a museum.
12.Vertical Paris, Paris – Rochambeau Cyrille, Bertin Joel, & Herizo Randrianarison
The Vertical Paris project has been designed by Rochambeau Cyrille, Bertin Joel and Herizo Randrianarison architects and is one of the “out-there” designs in the competition.
The concept idea of the architects was to create a connection between the existing context and the new vertical extensions or contemporary Parisian skyscrapers. One of the strategies was to create a new pedestrian layer for the city with the utilization of the rooftops. The buildings are designed using the existing fabric, and you will be able to find little squares, picturesque streets, parks, housing, and many cultural facilities.
13.Vertical Farm, Chicago – Lee Dongjin, Park Jinkyu, & Lee Jeongwood
The Vertical Farm has been designed by Lee Dongjin, Park Jinkyu and Lee Jeongwood architects and is quite an unique project regarding vertical agriculture.
The Circular Symbiosis Tower is the first skyscraper that proposes a vertical farm for livestock, and the concept idea on which this project is based was to create a new habitat to raise cattle within the city. The structure is based on a very simple idea, so that the spiraling platforms or grass fields provide grazing ground for cattle which move upwards as they continue grazing while other livestock are kept at already pastured areas. Other animals such as chickens will have to use the previous field until its grass has grown again. This way, there won’t be any transportation costs and the raised animals will have a better quality of life.
14.Laminated Wood Skyscraper, Brazil – Tomas Kozelsky, Patrick Bedarf, & Dimitrie Andrei Stefanescu
The Laminated Wood Skyscraper has been designed by Tomas Kozelsky, Patrick Bedarf and Dimitrie Andrei Stefanescu architects and represents an innovative concept that uses wood in a sustainable manner through the combination of research and tourism.
Being located in the heart of the Amazon forest, the aim of this impressive Laminated Wood Skyscraper is to provide a sustainable environment for recreation, research, and observation with the purpose of educating visitors on the alarming rate of deforestation in it’s native Brazil. The structure of the skyscraper consists of prefabricated laminated titan-wood elements that support floor plates and prefab shipping containers.
15.Porifera Skyscraper, Paris – Nicolas Jomain & Boriana Tchonkova
The Porifera Skyscraper has been designed by Nicolas Jomain & Boriana Tchonkova and is an innovative project located at the base of the Seine River.
The aim of this project is to produce bio-fuels through different types of algae synthesized with sunlight exposure. The interior structure is divided in three main towers for hotel, housing, and offices, while the outside structure is based on Voronoi subdivisions that allows for large and diverse openings. There are also sky gardens and hydroponic green houses located in the building at various levels, which produce vegetables and fruits for the community.
