Winners unveiled for the CTBUH’s 2021 Student Tall Building Design Competition

The winning entries have been announced for the 10th iteration of the CTBUH International Student Tall Building Design Competition. Four winners have been selected from over 150 entries, including two teams hailing from Malaysia. The four winners focus on a variety of pressing topics in urbanism, with tall buildings that combat COVID-19, encourage innovation, repurpose waste, and strengthen biodiversity.

We have republished the winning entries below, complete with a project description. You can compare the 2021 winners with the previous year by checking out the 2020 winners here.

1st Place: Smart Cube +/Fast-Assembling COVID-19 Prevention Olympic Village, Tokyo
Chien-Hsun Chen, Han-Yu Lai, and Chun-Yi Yeh
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

Project description: "The Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, an athlete’s village is designed to prevent viral spread and minimize impact on the athletes’ health. The whole building is made up of rapidly assembled structures. It is designed to be divided between living layers, an anti-epidemic stratum, and athletic training layers, so as to reduce crowd risk and maintain the necessary training facilities for the athletes themselves."

2nd Place: INFLUX, Belgrade
Marijana Gagic
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, Serbia

Project description: "The INFLUX high-rise, a co-living tower in Belgrade for young professionals, is a part of a strategy to curb “brain drain” by encouraging skilled technicians and scientists to remain in Serbia, or motivate young, educated people trained abroad to return or become transnational. Symbolically, the design is located in New Belgrade, a part of the city developed in the 1950s and initially populated by students, living in the pavilion dormitories of Student City. The budling, positioned at an attractive location in Block 17, aims to offer new opportunities and better living and working conditions that will attract talent and retain citizens."

3rd Place: Waste Rig - Pudu Eternal Market, Kuala Lumpur
Nik Muhammad Idzham Shah Abdul Hadi
Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia

Project description: "Kuala Lumpur generates 3,500 metric tons of bio-waste daily. Pudu Market, once the city’s economic gem, has degenerated over time and earned a reputation for being unclean. The Waste Rig was conceived to manage the daily waste of the city and turn it into treasure. As a waste-to-energy plant with spaces for markets and other activity, the project contributes to a circular, thriving and more sustainable economy."

4th Place: The Seed, Kuala Lumpur
Lee Ze Bin, Chor Zhao Gen, Lim Chen Hee, Tan Yu Qin, and Lau Chi Ying
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia

Project description: "Rapid urbanization and excessive population growth have caused the fragmentation of the greenery in most of the cities around the world. People are living in a “concrete jungle” environment, under high pressure. The design concept of The Seed is intended to build a home for all humankind, flora and fauna, to celebrates the nature to which humans originally belong. The proposed tower is located in one of the city’s most prime zones, serving as a 'green catalyst' to attract local urban dwellers and tourists, leading to a substantial improvement in the living quality of the place. The Seed consists of modular containers intersecting between different themed farming platforms, the concept of which is inspired by the transverse plane of the plant that secures the harmonious coexistence between humankind and nature."