The winning SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge ideas

Participants in the international SKYHIVE Skyscraper Challenge had the freedom to design their most innovative high-rise on a 130x80m site. Launched by Bee Breeders and Manipal Executive Education to challenge architects to rethink the 21st-century skyscraper, the competition attracted submissions that covered issues on globalization, design adaptability, digital trends, and sustainability.

In the end, the jury selected three prize winners, a student winner, and a green award winner. Six honorable mentions were also selected. All the winning entries will be exhibited at the Manipal University Dubai School of Design & Architecture during their annual Global Tall Building Studio workshop.

*Update - March 6, 2018: The winning results have changed.

1ST PLACE: Aero Hive.
Project author: Suraksha Acharya | India

Jury commentary: “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 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. The entry shows great potential for becoming a beacon of sustainable design.”

2ND PLACE: Chicago Pillar.
Project author: Jon Carag | United States

Jury commentary: “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.”

3RD PLACE + Bee Breeders Student Award: The Wall.
Project authors: Elizabeth Compeán Michel, Gabriel Alejandro Madrigal Betancourt, Juan Jesús García Castro, Rodrigo Zertuche Rodríguez | Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi | Mexico

Jury commentary: “While among the least developed designs in the winner's category, this was also one of the judges favorites. There is so much tension and debate today concerning desires to close national borders by building walls, or making them more impenetrable by increasing their security. This proposal poses the very interesting question of how to spacialize the number of people crossing America's border - what would happen if immigrants were to be given housing at the border? As shown in these images, towers stretch across the frontier, reminiscent of the watchtowers stretched along China's Great Wall, somehow giving order and rhythm to an infrastructure otherwise so winding and vast. The towers as shown in this submission become part of this infrastructure, forming a sort of intermediary nation of people in-between, the basis for a great design project with so much more to explore.”

Bee Breeders Green Award winner: Evoluzione.
Project authors: Alessandro Buffi, Gian Maria Angelini | Italy

Find more about the winning entries and honorable mentions on Bee Breeders.