eVolo presents 2024 Skyscraper Competition winners

The winners of eVolo Magazine’s 2024 Skyscraper Competition have been unveiled. Three winners and 14 honorable mentions were selected from a total of 206 projects submitted. 

Established in 2006, the annual award "recognizes visionary ideas that through the novel use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, challenge the way we understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments."

The three winning projects, envisioned by designers from China and Egypt, explore solutions to bring agriculture into cities, ways to revitalize the Yellow River in China, and an idea to build underwater to filter excess carbon dioxide in the oceans using carbon capture technology.

Take a closer look at these winning entries as well as the honorable mentions below.

FIRST PLACE: Urban Intercropping
Design team: Penghao Zhao, Hanyu Sun, Sinuo Jia, Jingxuan Li, Songping Jing,  Yibo Gao, YuJie Zeng, An Jiang (China)

Project excerpt: "In today’s urbanization process, the distance between cities, agriculture, and natural ecology is gradually widening, leading to numerous issues. As the political, economic, and cultural hub of Xinjiang, Urumqi, located in northwest China, faces the contradiction between urban development and agricultural ecological resources. To address this, the architectural design concept of 'Urban Intercropping' is proposed. Inspired by the intercropping planting system in agriculture, this design integrates this planting pattern with urban spatial planning. By inserting architectural slicing devices into the 'gaps' of the city, a new urban system is formed, enabling any point within the city to become a new system, thus realizing a de-centralized urban development model. Simultaneously, the design concentrates on agricultural industries in high-rise buildings, leveraging the vertical intercropping planting model to maximize the utilization of space, light energy, and resources. Composed of mechanical devices, non-mechanical facilities, and movable living units, this architecture addresses issues such as urban housing shortages, traffic congestion, and a lack of green spaces, enhancing urban efficiency and revitalizing intermediate urban areas." Read more about the project here.

SECOND PLACE: The Streamline Concerto
Design team: Jianwei Zhu , Haoyu Liu, Yi Liu, Yanchu Liang (China)

Project excerpt: "The Yellow River, revered as the Mother River of the Chinese nation, has shaped the banks along its course and the North China Plain, creating an ideal environment for agricultural revolution and laying a solid natural and geographical foundation for the emergence and development of Chinese civilization. However, as human history has progressed, the ancient ecology of the Yellow River has increasingly deteriorated. Sandstorms have become more severe near the Yellow River basin, and due to excessive cultivation and grazing upstream, soil erosion in the Loess Plateau has intensified. This has led to significant sediment accumulation and a continual rise of the riverbed downstream, resulting in the current situation of the elevated river, or ‘hanging river’, posing an imminent threat of riverbank breaches and urban flooding. This design focuses on the environmental challenges of the Yellow River, addressing soil erosion upstream and the ‘hanging river’ phenomenon downstream. It adopts a philosophy of Yin-Yang harmony and collaborative management to comprehensively tackle these issues, aiming to achieve natural balance and soil-water improvement. We aspire that, in three 50-year cycles, through phases of restoration, regeneration, and sustainability, the architecture will blend into nature, and the sandstorms will be effectively controlled, soil in the upstream will no longer be lost, and the Loess Plateau will flourish; the riverbed downstream will be reduced to a safe level, turning the ‘hanging river’ into history." Read more about the project here.

THIRD PLACE: Ocean Lungs Skyscraper
Design Team: Mohammed Noeman Coutry, AbdelRahman Mahmoud Badawy, Toka Hassan Taman, Amr Khaled Mahmoud AbdElsstar, Hend Mahmoud Hassan Rashad, Menna Tallah Mahmoud Fouad, Mohamed Mahfouz Abdelaziz Abdelwadoud, Nagwa Khaled Mohamed Mohamed, Norhan Mohammed Abdel-Hamid Abdel-monem, and Omar Ahmed Salah Mohamed (Egypt)

Project excerpt: "Our oceans face a double threat: rising CO2 levels and the devastation of coral reefs. These issues are intricately linked. CO2 dissolving in the water creates carbonic acid, leading to ocean acidification. This acidification weakens coral skeletons and delays their growth and survival. Coral reefs, teeming with marine life, are essential for the health of our oceans. The Ocean Lungs project tackles both problems simultaneously, offering a glimmer of hope for the future of our marine environment. Ocean Lungs envisioned as a skyscraper positioned 1000 meters beneath the surface with a floating beacon above, embodies a lifeline for the ocean. At its core, the project harnesses state-of-the-art carbon capture technology. Imagine submerged, sphere-shaped segments enveloped in specialized membranes like high-performance, microporous sulfonated polyphenylsulfone (sPPS). These membranes allow CO2 to pass through while remaining impermeable to salt and other minerals, functioning as the ocean’s purifier by removing CO2 and other pollutants. This initiative directly confronts the root cause of acidification, promoting healthier marine environments crucial for the survival and prosperity of oceanic life." Read more about the project here.

You can also find the 14 Honorable Mentions in the image gallery below.