Skyscraper International Contest

The pictures bellow are from projects created by my students in the previous semester (2010/2). The module was concerned giving answers to basic questions: how is the new meaning of skyscraper in the 21th Century and which are the responsabilities that those mega-structures brings together.

As the contest is running, I will not give the name of the authors, but just explore them in a glance.

This first two pics are an "Urban Farming Research Centre". His Author explain:

Scenario

Nowadays, to feed the world's population of 6.8 billion people, it's needed an equivalent area of entire South America. According to some studies, yet by 2050, with 9 billion people, we may need an area equivalent to Brazil. So, there is a clear necessity to look for new developments of agriculture.

This proposal do not have intention to present a skyscraper that explores maximum deployment of resources in smallest areas, but it constitutes a first essay where skyscrapers like that could pop in the skyline of the city.

In the sense this skyscraper should be a powerful tool to local city farmers, who will make their all experiments and will find the best conditions to produce vegetables and ease their labor. In the midst of many objectives, the building aims to be a center of a local network of urban farmers since his site is in front of a central market of Belo Horizonte city.

The vertical agriculture

The skyscraper has 24 floors where research concerning hydroponics are developed. It has also a experimental greenhouse dedicated to research plants disease and other greenhouse which research no hydroponic farming.

Since the main building is a center of research in hydroponics, there is also a visitors center, with restaurant, stores, exposition hall and multimedia room; there is also an analysis center, with labs (researching water, soil, genetic and others) that can support the community; as well there is a loading area and a warehouse.

Technology, potable water and size of farms

Due to our current technology today we can build skyscrapers. Since immemorial times, as Babylon era, we can see human’s desire of farming and gardening vertically. Adding up to this, nowadays we seek for technological support to built environmental friendly towers and sustainable buildings that create synergic influences within their environment.

Beyond sustainability, in this project we were concerned of a research process that include the building itself as an experiment to cultivate hydroponics. It is justified considering the massive amount of potable water demanded by any traditional agriculture and a giant size of lands used to cultivate. If we not pay attention on those bigger farms, we will devastate ours forests in the behalf of an expansion of agricultural areas.

A lot are being spent in order to get this buildings sustainability. But this one is not to turn other buildings more sustainable, it is to turn life more sustainable. We see food as something that has almost no impact on the planet, but the truth is that agriculture uses lots of natural resources. A good percentage of all potable water is used for agriculture, and we may also say that lots of forests are being devastated. Here in Brazil, the bounds of the Amazon rainforest are being pushed by big farmers.

All the technology used in this building is developed and ready to use. That means that the project is not a prognosis of a technological state in the future. Three concerns were explored in the architectural solutions: all spatial elements were planned to permit plants to grown better, with light, water and temperature.

This second project was probably the one of the most exciting in terms of seeking solutions to horizontal occupations through vertical structures and distributions of empties sites to be occupied by their inhabitants. Certainly this would be prized if the team took at the end the task of sending it to the contest. I guess they give up, without any new I noticed.
Another noticeable work was this, despite the poor graphical solution. It was a Shopping locate nearly our Administrative Centre of the county. A massive structure shelter shoppings, fairies, cinemas, leisure and offices, crossing the highway in fron of it and, at the sametime, connecting two neighbouhoods: Jardim Canaã e Centro Administrativo.

This next project was amazingly developed to permite flexible arragements of containers which would be transformed in places where exhibitions would planned.


It is a pitty that graphical quality of this was poor, but it was one of the most expressive in terms of structural solution, with a beauty result. It was destinated to integrate Shops, Offices and hostel. I am wondering wheather the team will give new pics or not...
A little bit more traditional the approach of this project was mixing up hotel, offices and shopping. The most impressive was the resultant silhouette in the landscape, creating a landmark.
The interesting approach of this was developing a strucuture with new materials, evolving to a ramp along the whole building.

This built, as others, solved the junction betweeen Hotel, offices and shop. The plasticity of the conjoint was adequate to create a landmark in the region as it can be seem.