eVolo 2012 Skyscraper Competition Winners

eVolo Magazine has announced the winners of the 2012 Skyscraper Competition. The annual contest—now in its sixth year—honors visionary ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution.

The competition received 714 projects from 95 different countries from which the jury selected 3 winners and 22 honorable mentions.

First Place: Himalaya Water Tower
Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao, Dongbai Song (China)

"The first place was awarded to Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao and Dongbai Song from China for their project “Himalaya Water Tower”. The proposal is a skyscraper located high in the Himalayan mountain range that stores 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." (from the eVolo announcement)

Second Place: Mountain Band-Aid
Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, Zihan Wang (China)

"The second place was awarded to Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, and Zihan Wang from China for their project “Mountain Band-Aid”, a design that seeks to simultaneously return the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and work as it restores the ecology of the Yunnan mountain range." (from the eVolo announcement)

Third Place: Monument to Civilization: Vertical Landfill for Metropolises
Lin Yu-Ta, Anne Schmidt (Taiwan)

"The recipient of the third place is Lin Yu-Ta from the Taiwan for a “Vertical Landfill” to be located in the largest cities around the globe, both as a reminder of the outrageous amount of garbage that we produce and as a power plant that harvests energy from waste decomposition." (from the eVolo announcement)

The 2012 panel of judges included Maria Aiolova (principal Terreform One), Chris Bosse (principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), Gaël Brulé (principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition), Julien Combes (principal Atelier CMJN, winner 2011 Skyscraper Competition), Marc Fornes (principal THEVERYMANY), Florian Idenburg (principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu), Minnie Jan (principal MisoSoupDesign), Mitchell Joachim (principal Terreform One, professor at New York University), Jing Liu (principal SO-IL  Solid Objectives – Indenburg Liu), Daisuke Nagatomo (principal MisoSoupDesign), Alexander Rieck (principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), Michel Rojkind (principal Rojkind Arquitectos), Michael Szivos (principal Softlab, professor at Pratt Institute), Tobias Wallisser (principal LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), and Ma Yansong (principal MAD Architects).

Check out images of the honorable mentions in the image gallery below and visit eVolo for detailed project descriptions of all awarded entries.