2014 international Student tall building Design Competition Winners

The 2014 International Student Tall Building Design Competition ran on the theme of "Towards Sustainable Vertical Urbanism." In light of global climate change, public awareness of urban sustainability has forced designers to rethink and reinvent the role of the high-rise building type. They must contribute to the protection of endangered environments and off er sustainable alternatives to how cities operate, as they meet the growing demands of urban dwelling and reshaping the landscape of modern cities. It is increasingly important that tall buildings connect with the urban fabric, integrating with the existing city/street life, and refl ect the nature of the city in which they are built. See more information on the five winners and projects below.

 

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1st Place

Clean Air Tower  

Alex Balchin, University of Nottingham

 

The ‘Clean Air Tower’ combines vertical architecture with industrial air-cleaning technologies and self-generated power, making use of the stack effect to clean 8,500,000 m3 of air per year for residents, office workers and the citizens of Tianjin. The air current drives wind turbines at the peak of the tower generating electricity. This electricity is used to power electro-static precipitators to ionise soot and PM2.5 particles in the air current and collect them at oppositely charged plates inside the chimney. This way the toxic particles are sucked out of the air current which is expelled from the peak of the tower, providing clean, healthy air for approximately one square mile of Tianjin.


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2nd Place

Vertical Aquaponic Farm

Matthew Humphreys, University of Nottingham 

 

Conceptually the project its not a completely introverted site specific design, but looks at the idea of a modular design that can be modified to suit varying sites across the country. It is seen as a prototype for a new urban vision for Singapore; a country which already invests in greening its urban habitat. Many of these towers could be scattered over the island to produce sustainable agriculture and aquaculture for their local community. The design itself consists of an elongated tower, with the longest sides facing east-west for maximum solar exposure to promote growing.


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3rd Place

Dust Collecting Skyscraper

Hong Seob Ahn and Sohyun Lee, University of Seoul 

 

Approximately 13% of China’s surface area is occupied by the desert and these areas are major known sources of the yellow dust, or the Asian dust. During the yellow dust occurrences, it is a dilemma for the people in Beijing whether they should open or close the windows in their homes; if the windows remain shut there would be poor air condition with no proper ventilation, but if they are opened there would be ventilation along with all the dust. This is the reason why I came up with a tall building that can both purify the dust air and provide fresh air for its inhabitants. There are mainly three parts to the air- providing system: a purifier, a hydrator, and a green chamber. 


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4th Place

Re-Stitching the City

Michael Dawson, Mikela Marques, and Clara Senatore, University of Witswatersrand

 

The 61 storey skyscraper which defines the new bridge has been strategically placed in the railway sidings connecting two important cultural precincts, namely Braamfontein and Newtown, where the temporarily unused trains are parked. It will be the tallest building in Johannesburg at 288m. The beginning of a new era of tall buildings in Johannesburg.  Johannesburg was developed and planned upon the principle of segregation. The Urban Connector will be one of the agents in re-stitching and repairing Johannesburg. The presence of cables and the building façade sub-structure adopt the language of a woven cloth weaving the city together.


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5th Place

Green Valley in Hong Kong

Ran Song, Mengyu Li, Chengxing Hou, and Qian Zhang, Chongqing University

Hong Kong Island is showing us a dichotomy between vast green land and high-density urban area. The most  important reason for this state lies in the high land-price policy that Hong Kong government takes. The site of our building is located in the old Wan chai area of Hong Kong which is a land of the junction of green land and the dense city.And there are design strategies of our building. We hope that the building will not only be a paradise for human beings, but for plants, birds, insects and other animals to share; and that the building will not only be a cold landmark, but to become a living landscape organism, which can metabolize spontaneously with the changing of seasons.


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