eVolo Magazine is pleased to invite architects, students, engineers, designers, and artists from around the globe

to take part in the eVolo 2015 Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition is one
of the worlds most prestigious awards for high-rise architecture. It recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper
design through the implementation of novel technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations along
with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. It is a forum that examines the
relationship between the skyscraper and the natural world, the skyscraper and the community, and the skyscraper and the
city.
The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the
establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the
contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants,
pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl.
The competition is an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the
creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. It is also a response to the exploration and adaptation of new
habitats and territories based on a dynamic equilibrium between man and nature a new kind of responsive and adaptive
design capable of intelligent growth through the self-regulation of its own systems.
There are no restrictions in regards to site, program or size. The objective is to provide maximum freedom to the
participants to engage the project without constraints in the most creative way. What is a skyscraper in the 21st century?
What are the historical, contextual, social, urban, and environmental responsibilities of these mega-structures?
eVolo Magazine is committed to continue stimulating the imagination of designers around the world thinkers that
initiate a new architectural discourse of economic, environmental, intellectual, and perceptual responsibility that could
ultimately modify what we understand as a contemporary skyscraper, its impact on urban planning and on the
improvement of our way of life.
Submission
1. Two boards with the project information including plans, sections, and perspectives. Participants are encouraged
to submit all the information they consider necessary to explain their proposal. These boards should be 24(h) X
48(w) in HORIZONTAL format. The resolution of the boards must be 150 dpi, RGB mode and saved as JPG
files. The upper right corner of each board must contain the participation number. There should not be any marks
or any other form of identification. The files must be named after the registration number followed by the board
number. For example: 0101-1.jpg and 0101-2.jpg.
2. A DOC file containing the project statement (600 words max). This file must be named after the registration
number followed by the word statement. For example: 0101-statement.doc.
3. A DOC file containing the entrants personal information, including name, profession, address, and email. This
file must be named after the registration number followed by the word info. For example: 0101-info.doc.
4. All the files must be placed in a ZIP folder named after your registration number. For example: 0101.zip

Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub

The cinematic vision of hyper speed rail was once a phenomenon. However, nations from around the world
from the USA to UK are again consolidating futuristic proposals for an advanced public transport network, to
maximize the economic growth of their cities.
The Hyper Speed Vertical Train Hub, aims to resolve the inevitable challenges that cities will face by 2075, and
offers a deliverable and sustainable solution for the future of the transport generation.

As the worlds population dramatically increases, the demand for goods, natural resources, foods, fuel and land
would have increased significantly by 2075. The majority of the futures population will gravitate towards
living in mega-cities, increasing the pressure and competition for adjacent suburban land, therefore forcing
cities to explore more innovative forms of public transport.
The essence of time is already an invaluable representation for the technological revolution. Smart phones,
video calls are already cemented into society as mandatory modes of communication. However, our proposal
will not only simplify time, it will reduce co2 emissions, increase energy security and revolutionize
international trading relations. The project will become a repeatable piece of infrastructure that can be
implemented to support any city around the world, connecting to a new Hyper Speed under and over ground
network, with trains covering an average distance of 300miles in 30 minutes.
The Hyper-Speed Vertical Train Hub aims to replace existing flagship train stations and create new key
connective points for the exchange of people and goods with the new hyper speed network. The proposal will
flip the traditional form and function of the current train station design vertically, and re-form it into a
cylindrical mass to increase the towers train capacity. This tall cylindrical form aims to eliminate the current
impact that traditional stations have currently on land use, therefore returning the remaining site mass back to
the densely packed urban Mega City. This remaining land will surround the base of the tower forming a large
urban park, leading towards to the base of the Hyper-Speed Vertical Hub. Passengers will travel into the main
lobby allowing travelers to ascend through the atrium and through the platforms and onto the carriages. The
trains will create a dynamic and kinetic facade, one that will be continuously evolving and responsive to the
workings of the vertical hub, a language that can be read by the whole city. As the train travels and transitions
from its horizontal formation, and ascends up the facade vertically, the carriages will pivot similar to that on a
Ferris wheel, allowing the passengers within the carriage to remain in an upright position and facing towards
the cityscape. The carriages will be supported by a magnetic structure located at either side, eliminating the
need for rails beneath, and allowing the carriages and its passengers to connect to the tower.
Sand Babel: Solar-Powered 3D Printed Tower
Sand Babel is a group of ecological structures designed as scientific research facilities and tourist attractions for
the desert. The structures are divided into two parts. The first part, above ground, consists of several
independent structures for a desert community while the second part is partially underground and partially
above ground connecting several buildings and creating a multi- functional tube network system.
The main portion of each building is constructed with sand, sintered through a solar-powered 3D printer. The
top structures are based on the natural phenomena called Tornadoes and Mushroom Rocks, which is very
common in deserts. It utilizes a spiral skeleton structure, which is tall, straight and with strong tension, to meet
the requirements of residential, sightseeing and scientific research facilities. The dual funnel model not only
improves cross-ventilation, but also generates water condensation atop the structures based on temperature
differences. The net structure for the portion of underground and surface is similar to tree roots. This design not
only helps to keep flowing sand dunes in place but also facilitates communication among the buildings.
PieXus Tower: Maritime Transportation Hub Skyscraper For Hong Kong
The PleXus Tower emerges from the banks of the West Hong Kong Harbor as a distribution of disjointed
structures, initially finding itself amidst the neighboring ferry terminal. The structure starts out as distributed
pods reaching out to connect with the citys transportation fabric, accepting traffic from the water in the form of
boats, ferries, and other water vehicles. This misfit arrangement of structural pods weaves into alignment with

the Macau terminal to greatly increase the scale of the transportation hub. Bridged together by connected
pipelines over the water, these pods work in harmony with the existing Macau Ferry Terminal to expediently
move people towards the inner structure. This assembly forms a podium for the first segment of the tower,
which emerges as a parking structure accessible from the highway network tangent to the tower.
Located at the waters edge next to the Macau Ferry Terminal, the towers design varies in both its circulation
and organization to control the speed at which it receives and negotiates the flow of traffic to optimize
movement around and inside the structure.
As you move inward from the receiving pods, the main structure begins to evolve its own function. First is a
horizontal parking structure on the lower levels of the main building, which emerges as a parking structure
accessible from the connected highway network to efficiently receive car traffic. As you move up the main
structure, business and shopping space is available, all accessible by car to the highest level of the tower. The
upper reaches of the towers are set aside for residential space, high above the noise of the city, providing a
living area that incorporates spectacular views of the dynamic city skyline. A heliport on top of the structure can
receive air traffic from above.
The solid form on the south side of the main tower receives solar energy during the day, providing power to the
building. The skin is breathable with numerous openings designed to overlap each other, undulating throughout,
allowing carbon dioxide to easily filter out from the designated parking areas on the lower levels. Each parking
level will also utilize foliage to further filter carbon dioxide from the air helping to reduce pollution in Hong
Kong.
The PleXus tower was conceived as a segmented, but highly connected network of major transportation
functions, as well as housing conventional program. The shift in the way the tower design is read, as well as in
the functionality of each segment, provides greater programmatic control. Residential is accessible yet private,
parking is convenient, and circulation through the ground- level public space is able to provoke interest. At night,
lights will glow from the panels, reminding us of the connections these segments share as well as blending in
with Hong Kongs unique night skyline.
Liquefactower: The Sinking City
With bigger and worse natural disasters appearing on the news with no signs of slowing down, we need to
rethink how cities should rebuild. When a city is destroyed, it is a sign that the citys infrastructure is not
suitable for the environmental conditions of that particular location. With so much variation of inherent
environmental properties around the globe, why do we globalize a singular infrastructural system?
Christchurch, New Zealand is one city that has recently been devastated by an earthquake. With citywide
liquefaction destroying infrastructure, it is clear that the typical method of construction is not suited for such
soil condition. The immediate response by the city is to artificially condition the soil for better building surface,
but this method of forcing nature to take form of an ideal environment to perpetuate the same construction
technique seems time consuming and wasteful.
The proposal is a system that adapts into the current environmental conditions without the need for tweaking,
alteration or correction. For the new city, unstable soil becomes a necessity and not a burden as the structure
buries and sinks into the ground by exploiting the phenomenon of liquefaction. This project becomes an
example of rethinking adaptation by responding to the nature of site without being constrained by traditional
methods.

Made In New York: Vertical Urban Industry

In the past few decades the world economy has seen a global shift of industry and manufacturing eastwards to
the emerging markets of China and India purely for economic efficiency and not innovation. The rate at which
urban populations are expanding will impact upon how we perceive the strategies of sustaining our cities with
regards to supply and demand. The rise of global cargo shipping has seen the ability of local enterprises to move
their businesses to areas of low labor costs but sharp rises in oil prices is only enhancing the argument of more
localized production.
The population of New York City is expected to grow to 9.4 million people in the next two decades and in
addition with a declining manufacturing industry, not aided by recent rezoning, the pressure to support the
proposed influx will only grow exponentially with an ever-increasing reliance on imports. Dense cities such as
New York, with a substantial inventory of older factory structures have the capability to look at the new
innovative and flexible industrial methods to revive manufacturing locally and regionally.
In constrained, urban environments could certain import-reliant industries be designed to act vertically to
prevent unnecessary horizontal expanses of manufacturing ultimately as a stimulus for urban and economic
growth? How can a paradigmatic architectural approach be adopted to support and promote local and city wide
manufacturing as a precedent for a new industrial urbanism?
The project aims to investigate, in a world of free trade and rapid globalization, the possibility of flexible
alternatives to inefficient industrial sprawl by considering the prospect of vertical manufacturing towers.
Vertiginous manufacturing structures would be proposed in former areas of prominent industrial activity; where
struggling businesses are being forced further away from their consumers due to higher rents and potential rezoning uncertainty Williamsburg, Long Island City, Newtown Creek and Red Hook amongst others. The
manufacturing hubs would intend to act as a physical socio-political barrier to counter-act the adverse affects of
the current administrations inadequate industrial assistance and the onset of encroaching residential and
commercial developments in nearby Long Island City and Williamsburg.
Three 158m high towers perched on the Newtown Creek peninsula in Queens aim to create a new paradigmatic
urbanism within the eclectic idiosyncrasy of the city. The repeatable industrial cluster provides a range of
flexible manufacturing spaces that can accommodate small/ large-scale industries, be they labor intensive or
entirely mechanical, that would choose to locate in inner city New York. A vertical assembly line running up
the south of each tower accommodates large mechanical industries that would otherwise have a huge footprint.
An exterior mega structural frame, variable large floor to ceiling heights and exterior structural lift cores allow
for maximum spatial allowance and adaptability. A reintroduction of the iconic finger pier has been utilized in
order to re-establish alternate distribution methods that have become uncommon in the city with 90m high
projections into the East River to enable waterborne traffic to once again freely interact directly with a large
agglomeration of manufacturers on a small footprint in the heart of the city.
With an average of 10 floors, each tower has 70,000 sqft of rentable space in each tower with the potential for
over 1000 employees or the equivalent of 40 local businesses. Over 3000 jobs/ 120 manufacturers can be
accommodated through the development of each manufacturing node.
21st Century Neoclassical Skyscraper
This project side-steps the common stylistic tendencies of computation-driven architecture, synthesizing our
expanding digital toolset with the language of Classicism. At a time when these digital tools facilitate the
generation of novel and varied architecture form, we embrace nostalgia and acknowledge the inherent, if

indefinite, significance of the Classical elements, genera, and their organization, taxis. Classicism provides an
established register against which architecture might be evaluated and understood. Thus, amid a preponderance
of indeterminate architectural form, a new Mannerist Project emerges, augmenting and modifying the Classical
kit-of-parts and rule set with computational methodologies.
Located at the site of the abandoned Chicago Spire, this project is motivated by the citys history of towerbuilding and place-making. While the neoclassical style of the 1893 Worlds Fair was not without detractors,
none can deny the potency of its image. Its ordered civic grandeur inspired classically-styled architecture and
city planning throughout the nation, legitimizing a rapidly evolving society via analogy to valorized ancient
regimes.
This building understands classical form as an architectural means of codifying social structure. The parallels
are overt: a configuration of discrete parts, governed by over-arching rules of proportion and order. With this in
mind, the towers deep classical facade can be evaluated with respect to its deviation from the norms of the
classical canon. Here, the genera are represented faithfully, the Doric, Giant Ionic, and Colossal Corinthian
Orders rendered true to historic norms, but their organization is heretical. Hierarchy has been reconfigured in
this thickened envelope of cascading classical thresholds. The primacy of greater Orders over lesser can no
longer be taken for granted, sequence is fractured across multiple elevations, rhythm and symmetry emerge,
then disappear. As such, the building reflects contemporary social structures, where diffuse and malleable
networks have supplanted rigid hierarchical systems.

Himalaya Water Tower

Housed within 55,000 glaciers in the Himalaya Mountains sits 40 percent of the worlds fresh water. The
massive ice sheets are melting at a faster-than-ever pace due to climate change, posing possible dire
consequences for the continent of Asia and the entire world stand, and especially for the villages and cities that
sit on the seven rivers that come are fed from the Himalayas runoff as they respond with erratic flooding or
drought.
The Himalaya Water Tower is a skyscraper located high in the mountain range that serves to store water and
helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the mountains natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which
can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for
future use. The water distribution schedule will evolve with the needs of residents below; while it can be used to
help in times of current drought, its also meant to store plentiful water for future generations.
The lower part of the Himalaya Water tower is comprised of six stem-like pipes that curve and wind together
and collect and store water. Like the stem of a plant, these pipes grow strong as they absorb their maximum
water capacity. In each of the six stems, a core tube is flanked by levels and levels of cells, which hold the water.
The upper part of the building the part that is visible above the snow line is used for frozen storage. Four
massive cores support steel cylindrical frames that, like the stems below, hold levels that radiate out, creating
four steel tubes filled with ice. In between the two sections are mechanical systems that help freeze the water
when the climatic conditions arent able to do so, purify the water and regulate the distribution of water and ice
throughout the structure.
At the bottom of the structure, surrounding the six intertwined water tubes is a transport system that regulates
fresh water distribution to the towns and cities below. The curving channels connect the mountains to the
villages, and are also hold within them a railway for the transport of people and goods.