The purpose of the SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge was to generate design ideas for iconic high rise buildings in cities around the globe. The jury evaluated the submissions based on their sensitivity to the environment, potential to serves as a landmark, analysis of form, and creativity.
1st Prize Winner – Aero Hive by Suraksha Acharya
The design resolves a large site by dividing the volume into two towers, reducing the monumentality of the high-rise with a porous and organic form.
Each tower is further fragmented into three semi-opaque vertical elements connected by spaces in transparent glass which allow daylight to reach the core, and permit outward views surrounding the proposed Hong Kong site.
The towers are connected at mid-height by a sky-bridge and each features a dense rooftop garden open to the sky. The entry shows great potential for becoming a beacon of sustainable design.
The method of how the proposed design meets the ground plane is unclear, but given the facade porosity it seems feasible for the building to have positive interaction at the street level.
2nd Prize Winner – Fallout by Alex Sullivan-Brown, Sindre Johnsen
The design uses a post-apocalyptic scenario to determine its unique function and programming: a ‘self-sufficient disaster relief centre which focuses on supplying aid to the surrounding urban environment’.
The tower is a vertical Noah’s Ark, a protective haven for various animal species. It is comprised of an Operation Control centre as a below-grade bunker, above which sit a Quarantine zone, Open park spaces, and Maintenance levels.
The proposal offers novel structural ideas for its earthquake-zone site of Christchurch, New Zealand.
The graphics of the presentation are striking, and the form clean and sinuous. One only hopes that a similar tower can be planned to protect the human population as well.
3rd Prize Winner – Chicago Pillar by Jon Carag
There has been much demand for proposals considering the famous ‘Chicago Spire’ site which awaits development in that city’s downtown.
Though the submission focuses on this particular site, the design has the potential to be used anywhere.
A simple cylindrical tower is wrapped in a ribbon of perimeter green spaces that transform the typical office, and which are well-designed with details showing deep planters permitting the growth of trees and appropriate drainage.
The resulting form is attractive and unique, related directly to its program. The jury would encourage the designer to further express the ‘green’ nature of the design in the exterior rendering and sections.
BB Student Award – The Wall by Elizabeth Compeán Michel, Gabriel Alejandro Madrigal Betancourt, Juan Jesús García Castro, Rodrigo Zertuche Rodríguez
BB Green Award – Evoluzione by Alessandro Buffi, Gian Maria Angelini
Source and images Courtesy by BEE BREEDERS.