eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2015 eVolo Skyscraper Competition. Since its inception in 2006, the annual awards program has received over 6,000 projects that re-envision the future of vertical architecture. The competition recognizes innovative ideas that revolutionize skyscraper design with implementation of novel technologies and materials as well as through their aesthetics, spatial organization, and global adaptability.
The program encourages contestants to speculate upon the relationships between vertical buildings and the natural environment with respect to sustainability and social issues. From a field of 480 projects, which were collected in January 2015, the jury selected three winners and 15 honorable mentions.
First Place: Essence Skyscraper, BOMP, Poland
This year’s first place prize was awarded to BOMP (Ewa Odyjas, Agnieszka Morga, Konrad Basan, and Jakub Pudo) from Poland for Essence Skyscraper, a hybrid mega-structure that, according to the architects, aims to “position non-architectural phenomena in an urban fabric.” With a main body divided into 11 natural landscapes, the building collectively overlaps landscapes such as an ocean, a jungle, a cave or, a waterfall in order to “stimulate a diverse and complex range of visual, acoustic, thermal, olfactory, and kinesthetic experiences.” BOMP will receive a cash prize of $5,000, a virtual visualization of the project by real5D, and press kit distribution by v2com.
Second Place: Shanty-Scaper, Suraksha Bhatla and Sharan Sundar, India
Second place winners, Suraksha Bhatla and Sharan Sundar, designed Shanty-Scaper to reutilize the city’s post-construction debris including pipes, corrugated metal sheets, and timber. The India-based duo seek to revitalize Chennai city’s slum by providing its inhabitants with housing, work and recreational spaces.
Third Place: Cybertopia, Egor Orlov, Russia
Russian contestant Egor Orlov received third place for Cybertopia, which reimagines a Federation of the future through combining the digital and physical world to produce a city that evolves according to the needs of its residents.
The 2015 jury panel included: Massimiliano Fuksas, principal at Studio Fuksas; Michael Hansmeyer, CAAD group programmer at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology; Richard Hassell and Wong Mun Summ, principals at WOHA; Alvin Huang, AIA, principal at Synthesis Design + Architecture; Wenchian Shi, project manager at MVRDV; Renske van der Stoep, project manager and architect at MVRDV; Benedetta Tagliabue, principal at EMBT Miralles Tagliabue; and Yong Ju Lee, first place winner of the 2014 eVolo Skyscraper Competition.
Please follow the links to view winning projects from the 2014 and 2013 editions of the competition in the ARCHITECT magazine Project Gallery.
