The international eVolo Skyscraper competition has been held annually since 2006. This time it has collected 625 projects completed by participants from 83 countries. The competition's piggy bank, already numbering about 5,000 of the most diverse skyscrapers, has been replenished with new, sometimes incredible ideas for high-rise construction. Some contestants studied geothermal and kinetic energy, others - methods of filtering polluted air, when the skyscraper itself acts as a giant air conditioner-purifier, others were carried away by digital research, the fourth proposed to create something like an island system in the ocean, or even completely leave the earth's surface and go to the stratosphere, to Mars or into outer space.
The jury selected three winners of the competition, another 24 projects were awarded incentive prizes and honorary diplomas. Among them were participants from Russia - Ivan Maltsev and Artem Melnik with the Quantum Skyscraper project, as well as Alexander Mamon and Artem Tyutyunnik from Ukraine with the Ring of Mars project. The main criteria for evaluating projects were originality, manufacturability, "stability", adaptability, the use of innovative materials - and all this taking into account the dynamic development of vertical development today and in the future.
First Prize
First place went to perhaps one of the most inventive projects - Polar Umbrella by US architect Derek Pirozzi. This floating skyscraper looks like a giant translucent umbrella, but in fact it is a research laboratory drifting in the polar ice. Its main mission is to preserve and restore the Arctic and Antarctic glaciers affected by global warming. It was proposed to place such skyscrapers in areas most prone to melting: the dome of the umbrella skyscrapers prevents the ice surface from heating up. And the provided systems of desalination and freezing of water, power plants operating on renewable energy sources and laboratories for the study of the ecosystem, according to the author, will restore the ice cover of the earth's poles.
Second prize
Second place went to Phobia Skyscraper, designed by French architects Darius Maïkoff and Elodie Godo. The skyscraper, which is a new form of modular dwelling, is proposed to be located in the Petite Senture railway ring in Paris in order to revitalize it. Constructed from recycled materials, this structure consists of a permanent frame and replaceable housing units that are able to evolve according to the needs of the residents. Nuclei centers are located between the dwellings - green public areas for exchanging information, collecting rainwater and installing solar panels.
Third Prize
Chinese architects Ting Xu and Yiming Chen won the third prize with their Light Park project. Light Park is a skyscraper with parks, greenhouses, sports fields, restaurants and recreational infrastructure that hovers in the air over the historical part of Beijing. The authors of the project raise the question of the rapid growth and overpopulation of this metropolis, where there are fewer and fewer spaces for recreation. One of the ways to make the city greener in the face of an acute shortage of free space is to move recreational areas to the sky.
A mushroom-shaped "cap" - a balloon filled with helium helps the skyscraper to soar; below are the propellers "on the sun propeller". Under them, on platforms offset from each other to avoid shading, life is in full swing. The autonomy of such a suspended city is ensured by solar panels and rainwater collection and filtration systems. The parks and lawns of the soaring skyscraper also, according to the authors, should purify the dirty air of the Beijing capital.
