Since 2006, the American architecture magazine eVolo, which specializes in publishing materials on modern technologies, innovations and developments in design, has been holding an annual competition of giant structures Skyscraper Competition 2012. Architects, students, engineers, designers and artists from all over the world can take part in the competition. . Today, it is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of high-rise architecture.
This is a forum that primarily considers the relationships and relationships between giant structures and the surrounding natural world, people, cities.
There are no restrictions for the participants of the competition in choosing the location and size of their structures. Maximum freedom and the absence of strict requirements allow the creative idea of the participants to be most clearly revealed.
eVolo magazine intends to continue to stimulate the imagination of designers around the world. Participants of the competition propose innovative architectural ideas that address economic and environmental issues, evoke various emotions and, perhaps, ultimately, can solve many of the problems that modern man faces.
The Skyscraper Competition 2012 featured 714 projects from all five continents and 95 countries. A competent jury, consisting of famous architects, landscape designers, environmentalists and winners of previous years, chose 25 works as a result of voting, three of which became winners of the competition.
3RD PLACE
Monument to Civilization (Project "Monument of Civilization")
Project authors: Lin Yu-Ta, Anne Schmidt (Taiwan)
The ever-increasing number of landfills located on lands adjacent to large cities creates a potential threat to public health and significantly worsens the environmental situation...
The project "Monument of Civilization" can be called frightening, surprising, making a deep impression. But other things in cities are also impressive, says the designer of the project: "Take, for example, New York - if in the area occupied by one skyscraper, we put all the garbage that the city produces annually, then we get a 1300-meter building, which about three times higher than the Empire State Building (450 meters) Doesn't that look impressive?"
The ever-increasing number of landfills located on lands adjacent to large cities poses a potential threat to public health and significantly worsens the environmental situation. It is long overdue to revise the technology of waste storage.
In addition, the accumulated waste can be reused and will serve as a good source of energy (for example, gas released during decomposition). The "Monument of Civilization" proposes to fill the hollow tower with garbage, which will be installed in the center of the city, and to use the cheap energy released during decomposition for the needs of the city.
The tower can also serve as a reminder of the wasteful lifestyle of our society: "A gradual and constantly growing tower should encourage citizens to introspect and thus lead to a reduction in waste," says the designer. "Looking at the size of such a tower, it will be possible to assess how correct the lifestyle of the inhabitants of the city is and how much they care about their future and the future of their children. I would like such towers to be installed in all cities, and perhaps someday major cities will compete to see which one of them has the smallest trash tower…"
2ND PLACE
Mountain Band-Aid
Project authors: Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, Zihan Wang (China)
Industrialization and high rates of mining are destroying the nature of China, especially in the mountains, which are literally on the verge of destruction. These processes not only destroy the ecology, but also displace the inhabitants of these regions, separating them from their homes, as well as depriving them of their livelihoods (many in these rural areas work as farmers). The Mountain Patch Project aims to restore the natural ecosystem, which will allow the mountainous Hmong people to return to their former place of residence and work on further restoration of the ecology in the vicinity of Mount Yunnan.
Chinese designers have developed a project for a two-layer structure. The outer layer is a skyscraper that stretches across the surface of the mountain and provides the indigenous people with the necessary housing. The inner sections of the unusual house are organized in accordance with the traditional way of life of the Hmong people, who lived in the villages before they were resettled from these places. The placement of dwellings on the slopes of the mountains means that their height is mainly determined by the height of the mountains. The construction serves not only as a home, but also allows you to restore the ecology: people living on mountains crippled by mining will not only be able to preserve the unique organization of space in their new "village", but will also contribute to the preservation and restoration of the mountain's environment, incl. by irrigating its slopes (reuse of domestic wastewater). It is this irrigation system that is the second - inner layer of the project. The irrigation system is aimed at stabilizing the soil of the mountain and growing plants.
The skyscraper is built in the traditional South Chinese style known as Chuan Dou. Small residential blocks are used as a base: the blocks are loosely organized, like the houses that were once a village, but at the same time, they represent a single organism
1st place Himalayan water tower
Skyscraper Competition 2012 Winner
Competition website: http://www.evolo.us
authors
Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao, Dongbai Song (China)
The Himalayan mountains, on the slopes of which there are more than 55 thousand glaciers, provide 40% of all fresh water in the world. Due to climate change, the ice layers are melting faster than ever before, which could lead to dire consequences for the entire Asian continent. This is especially true of villages and cities located along the banks of seven rivers, which are fed by melt water from the Himalayas.
The Himalayan water tower is a huge structure that can be serially reproduced.
The design is located high in the mountains and is designed to regulate the uniform flow of melt water - a special mechanism collects water during the rainy season, purifies it, freezes it and stores it for further use in dry seasons.
The water distribution schedule depends on the needs of the inhabitants of the settlements located in the Himalayas. The stored water can help during the intermittent dry seasons and can be stored for many years.
The lower part of the tower consists of six stem-like pipes that serve to collect and store water. Like plant stems, these tubes contain a large number of water-holding "cells". The upper part of the building - the part that is visible above the snow line - is designed to store water in frozen form. Four massive cores support steel cylindrical structures filled with ice. Between the sections are mechanical systems that help to freeze water when the climatic conditions in the mountains do not allow it to be done naturally, as well as purify the water and regulate the distribution of water and ice in the reservoirs of the structure.
In the lower part of the building there is also a kind of transport system that regulates and delivers water to villages and cities.
Villas "Rock" and "Shell" in Croatia by Zaha Hadid Architects.
The concepts of two ultra-modern villas "Rock" and "Shell", designed by the architectural studio Zaha Hadid (Zaha Hadid Architects), are intended to define the architectural style of the new comfortable resort in Dubrovnik (Croatia). It is expected that in the future this futuristic holiday destination will consist of 400 villas, five hotels, golf courses and infrastructure and a spa center.
The future complex will provide visitors with excellent views of the terracotta roofs of Dubrovnik, the picturesque panorama of the Mediterranean Sea and mountain landscapes, as it is located on a high plateau (about 300 to 400 m above sea level), north of the ancient city. The project involves the construction of comfortable villas, hotels, apartments, commercial facilities, a spa center, an 18-hole golf course and the golf club itself. The newly developed master plan of the complex defines the perimeter of the territory and the size of the occupied site, which so far varies from 12,000 to 20,000 square meters.
The concepts provided are unique "cosmic" structures with expressive sculptural qualities, the main characteristic of which is a sense of light and space. The source of inspiration for the authors of the project was the amazing Croatia, combining sharp rocks, caves and relief valleys.
So, for example, the “Rock” structure resembles a rock that has partially sunk into the ground. The seven-room house has a very low height, trying not to disturb the beauty of the local natural landscape and maintain the scale of the Mediterranean architecture of Dubrovnik. The magnificent building was installed on the very edge of the slope in order to take full advantage of the panoramic view. The park and garden, which are located in the northern part, will serve as a recreation area and a green "buffer" in relation to the nearby village and road.
Futuristic architecture amazes many with its amazing and unusual design. The most interesting of the futuristic buildings (some of them are still under construction, or their construction has not even begun) are collected in this top ten:
10. Khan Shatyr
Khan Shatyr is already a reality! This is a huge transparent tent in the center of Astana - the new capital of Kazakhstan. The building serves as a cultural center and a place for communication of the city's residents. The climate in Astana is quite severe - in winter temperatures drop to -35 degrees Celsius.
9. Museum of Modern and Nuragic Art
The Museum of Modern and Nuragic Art in Cagliari, Italy, held a design competition for their new building. The winner of the competition was a stunning 12,000 square meter project by architect Zaha Hadid.
8. Waves of Hangzhou
Waves of Hangzhou is a five-star hotel and office project in Hangzhou, China. The project provides for two buildings that complement each other.
7. Crescent Tower
Of course, Dubai could not miss this list. The Crescent Tower is a concept building project in Zabeel Park that would represent the modernity of Dubai. The tower will have a library, conference rooms, restaurants and an open-air observation deck. Just don't forget the sandstorms!
6. Hotel in Songjiang
This amazing hotel is to be built in a flooded quarry at the foot of Tianmashang Mountain in the Songjiang District of Shanghai. The design of the hotel is such that the original form of the quarry will remain intact.
5. Media Center Nexus
Media Center Nexus is another project concept for the United Arab Emirates, which is at the forefront of futuristic architecture. This building will mainly serve as information storage, but will also contain a media center, exhibition spaces, offices, apartments and gardens.
4. Beijing International Airport
The third terminal of the Beijing International Airport is amazing. Its construction was completed in 2009 - a little later than it was needed: it was originally planned for the Olympics in China. Covering an area of 986,000 square meters, the terminal has become the largest in the world.
3. Gardens by the Bay
Gardens by the Bay is an urban park in Singapore. They already exist and accept visitors. The gardens were voted the best building in the world in 2012.
2. Lily
In an attempt to prepare humanity for a possible scenario of extreme climate change, a Belgian designer has designed the Floating Eco-City (also known as Lilia) to serve as a refuge for those affected by climate change. The city can float and is made up of three "mountains" that can accommodate 50 thousand people (it is not clear what to do with the rest of the people). The fact that the city can float on the surface of the water will help it withstand the effects of melting glaciers flooding the continents.
During the winter, people experience hypersomnia, depressed mood, and a general sense of hopelessness. Even the risk of premature death in winter is much higher. Our biological clock is out of sync with our wake and work clocks. Shouldn't we adjust our office hours to help improve our mood?
As a rule, people tend to see the world in gloomy colors, when the daylight hours become shorter and the cold sets in. But changing work hours to suit the seasons can help lift our spirits.
For many of us, winter, with its cold days and long nights, creates a general feeling of malaise. It becomes increasingly difficult to get out of bed in the semi-darkness, and hunched over our desks at work, we feel our productivity dwindle along with the remnants of the midday sun.
For the small subset of the population who experience severe seasonal affective disorder (SAD), it's even worse - winter melancholy mutates into something far more debilitating. Patients experience hypersomnia, depressed mood, and a general feeling of hopelessness during the darkest months. Regardless of SAD, depression is more commonly reported in winter, suicide rates increase, and work productivity drops in January and February.
While it's easy to explain all this with some vague idea of winter gloom, there may be a scientific basis for this depression. If our biological clock is out of sync with our wake and work hours, shouldn't we adjust our office hours to help improve our mood?
“If our biological clock says it wants us to wake up at 9:00 because it’s a dark winter morning outside the window, but we get up at 7:00, we miss an entire phase of sleep,” says Greg Murray, professor of psychology at Swinburne University , Australia. Research in chronobiology - the science of how our body regulates sleep and wakefulness - supports the idea that sleep needs and preferences change during the winter, and the constraints of modern life can be particularly inappropriate during these months.
What do we mean when we talk about biological time? Circadian rhythms are a concept that scientists use to measure our internal sense of time. It's a 24-hour timer that determines how we want to place the various events of the day - and most importantly, when we want to get up and when we want to sleep. “The body likes to do this in sync with the biological clock, which is the master regulator of how our body and behavior relate to the sun,” Murray explains.
There are a huge number of hormones and other chemicals involved in regulating our biological clock, as well as many external factors. Especially important is the sun and its location in the sky. Photoreceptors located in the retina, known as ipRGC, are particularly sensitive to blue light and are therefore ideal for adjusting the circadian rhythm. There is evidence that these cells play an important role in regulating sleep.
The evolutionary value of this biological mechanism has been to contribute to changes in our physiology, biochemistry and behavior depending on the time of day. “This is precisely the predictive function of the circadian clock,” says Anna Wirtz-Justice, professor of chronobiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. "And all living beings have it." Given the change in daylight throughout the year, it also prepares organisms for seasonal behavioral changes such as breeding or hibernation.
While there hasn't been enough research on whether we would respond well to more sleep and different wake times in the winter, there is evidence that this may be the case. “From a theoretical standpoint, reducing daylight in the winter morning should contribute to what we call phase lag,” says Murray. “And from a biological standpoint, there is good reason to believe that this probably does happen to some extent. Delayed sleep phase means our circadian clock wakes us up later in the winter, which explains why it's getting harder to fight the urge to reset the alarm."
At first glance, it may seem that the phase delay of sleep suggests that we will want to go to bed later in winter, but Murray suggests that this tendency is likely to be neutralized by the general growing desire to sleep. Research shows that people need (or at least want) more sleep in the winter. A study in three pre-industrial societies - where there are no alarm clocks, smartphones, and a 09:00 to 17:00 workday - in South America and Africa found that these communities collectively napped an hour longer during the winter. Given that these communities are located in equatorial regions, this effect may be even more pronounced in the northern hemisphere, where winters are colder and darker.
This sleepy winter regime is mediated at least in part by one of the major players in our chronobiology, melatonin. This endogenous hormone is controlled by the circadian cycles and also influences them in turn. It's a sleeping pill, which means it's going to keep ramping up until we fall into bed. “In humans, the melatonin profile is much broader in winter than in summer,” says chronobiologist Til Rönneberg. "These are biochemical reasons why circadian cycles can respond to two different seasons."
But what does it mean if our internal clocks don't match the times our schools and work schedules require? “The discrepancy between what your biological clock wants and what your social clock wants is what we call social jet lag,” Rönneberg says. "Social jet lag is stronger in winter than in summer." Social jet lag is similar to the one we are already familiar with, but instead of flying around the world, we are unsettled by the time of our social demands - getting up to work or school.
Social jet lag is a well-documented phenomenon, and it can have serious implications for health, well-being, and how well we can function in our daily lives. If it is true that winter produces a form of social jet lag, in order to understand what its consequences may be, we can turn our attention to the people who are most affected by this phenomenon.
The first group of people for potential analysis includes people living on the western edges of time zones. Since time zones can cover vast areas, people living on the eastern fringes of the time zones experience sunrise about an hour and a half earlier than those living on the western fringes. Despite this, the entire population must adhere to the same working hours, which means that many will be forced to get up before sunrise. Essentially, this means that one part of the time zone is constantly out of sync with circadian rhythms. And although this may not seem like such a big deal, it is associated with a number of devastating consequences. People living in the western fringes are more prone to breast cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease - as the researchers determined, the cause of these diseases was primarily a chronic disruption of circadian rhythms, which arises from the need to wake up in the dark.
Another striking example of social jetlag is in Spain, which lives on Central European Time, despite being geographically aligned with the UK. This means that the country's time is set one hour ahead, and that the population must follow a social timetable that does not match their biological clock. As a result, the entire country suffers from a lack of sleep - getting on average an hour less than the rest of Europe. This degree of sleep loss has been associated with an increase in absenteeism, work-related injuries, and an increase in stress and school failure in the country.
Another group that may show symptoms similar to those of people suffering during the winter is the group that has a natural tendency to stay awake at night throughout the year. The average teenager's circadian rhythm is naturally shifted four hours ahead of that of adults, which means that adolescent biology causes them to go to bed and wake up later. Despite this, for many years they struggled to get up at 7 am and get to school on time.
And while these are exaggerated examples, could the winter-wearing consequences of an inappropriate work schedule contribute to a similar but less significant impact? This idea is partly supported by the theory of what causes SAD. Although there are still a number of hypotheses about the exact biochemical basis of this condition, a significant number of researchers believe that it may be caused by a particularly severe response to the body clock being out of sync with natural daylight and the sleep-wake cycle - known as delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Currently, scientists tend to think of SAD as a spectrum of characteristics rather than a condition that is either present or not, and in Sweden and other northern hemisphere countries, up to 20 percent of the population is estimated to suffer from milder winter melancholy. Theoretically, mild SAD can be experienced by the entire population to some extent, and only for some it will be debilitating. “Some people don't get too emotional about being out of sync,” Murray notes.
At present, the idea of reducing working hours or postponing the start of the working day to a later time in winter has not been tested. Even countries located in the darkest parts of the northern hemisphere - Sweden, Finland and Iceland - work all winter in almost night conditions. But there is a chance that if the working hours correspond more closely to our chronobiology, we will work and feel better.
After all, US schools that moved the start of the day later to match the circadian rhythms of teenagers have successfully shown an increase in the amount of sleep students get and a corresponding increase in energy. A school in England that shifted the start of the school day from 8:50 to 10:00 found that there was a sharp drop in sick leave and improved student performance.
There is evidence that winter is associated with more lateness to work and school, with an increase in absenteeism. Interestingly, a study published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms found that absenteeism was more closely related to photoperiods - the number of hours of daylight - than to other factors like the weather. Simply allowing people to come in later can help counter this influence.
A better understanding of how our circadian cycles affect our seasonal cycles is something we could all benefit from. "Bosses should say, 'I don't care when you come to work, come when your biological clock decides you've had enough sleep, because in this situation we both win,'" Rönneberg says. “Your results will be better. You will be more productive at work because you will feel how efficient you are. And the number of sick days will decrease.” Since January and February are already our least productive months of the year, do we really have anything to lose?
French photographer Frederic Chaubin has released a collection of his works "USSR: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed". It includes the most unusual buildings built in the Union republics from 1970 to 1990...
One day in 2003, Frédéric Chaubin was wandering around a Tbilisi market when he came across an old book. Naturally, the French photographer could not read the text, but the illustrations literally fascinated him.
In this work on the 70-year history of post-revolutionary architecture, an amazing selection of photographs of buildings was presented, demonstrating an extraordinary variety of styles: in addition to Soviet Suprematism and Constructivism, it contained examples of Western influence, associations with the creations of all the great masters - from Alvar Alto and Antonio Gaudi to Oscar Niemeyer.
1. Cinema "Russia" in Yerevan
In addition, the most interesting element of the Soviet desire for superiority, architectural allusions to satellites, space rockets and flying saucers, became the leitmotif of all this diversity.
2. Research Institute in Kyiv
Chauben fell in love with this architecture at first sight. Thus began his seven-year "odyssey with a camera" - the search for the most unusual creations of Soviet architects (many of them today are in danger of death).
All of them, according to Shoben, make an amazing impression: "I seemed to have found an ancient lost city, my own Machu Picchu."
Take the incredible building of the Ministry of Highways of Georgia, built in the mid-seventies - a bold project in the form of a bizarre "stack" of rectangular blocks with symmetrical rows of windows.
3.The building of the Ministry of Highways of Georgia
Designed on the basis of the so-called “city-space” concept, and, moreover, with surprising attention to ecology for that time (and for the transport department), this structure seems to be hanging in the air, and trees and bushes grow freely between its supports.
And here is the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic Institute in Minsk: in the picture taken by Chauben (it, along with other photographs, was included in the book “Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed”, which became the result of his odyssey), it resembles a giant passenger ferry, majestically floating along the ice-bound Belarusian river.
4. Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic Institute in Minsk
Another architectural gem is the Druzhba sanatorium in Yalta: it resembles a pyramid of cogwheels (each of them is a residential floor), as if growing out of a grove on the seashore.
“Turkish intelligence and the Pentagon mistook it for a missile base,” says Shoben. The photographer is the first to admit that his book is the work of an observant and caring dilettante, and not a specialist in architecture. However, no expert, probably, would have made so much effort to take the necessary pictures.
5.Sanatorium "Friendship" in Yalta
Partly because of the language barrier, and partly because the names of the creators of these miracles were not widely publicized, the original Soviet architecture went largely unnoticed in the West. And now it amazes, almost shocks.
Information about these outstanding projects appeared, but as a rule, either in the journal "Architecture of the USSR", or in specialized publications like the jubilee (dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution) book published in 1987 on the architecture of all 15 Soviet republics, which riveted Chauben's attention to Tbilisi market.
In addition, travel by foreigners throughout the Soviet Union, especially outside of the usual tourist routes, was discouraged to say the least, and many of these masterpieces remained virtually unknown outside the regions where they were built.
However, Chaubin was especially struck by the fact that the most stunning buildings he found were erected at the final stage of the communist era.
“Almost all of them were built in the last 15 years of the existence of the USSR. At first it seemed strange to me that they were made in such a variety of forms - especially when you remember that the construction in the USSR was mainly carried out according to the standard designs introduced by Khrushchev in the mid-fifties, from cheap concrete, in a minimalist style that did not allow the architect's imagination to run wild.
According to him, the explanation lies in the fact that in the seventies and eighties, talented local architects had more opportunities to prove themselves - they were no longer bound hand and foot by the restrictions imposed by Moscow.
Thus, this architectural take-off can be called the “swan song” of a superpower, created by people freed from the shackles of centralization, who observed modern trends in the West and borrowed them. "These buildings anticipated the collapse of the USSR," Shoben believes, "long before the system collapsed in 1991."
Many masterpieces are now abandoned or in need of repair. In general, they are characterized by one problem: we are talking about public buildings that were built on a grand scale to impress and inspire the local population, which, now that the state has ceased to be omnipotent and all-good, were simply not in demand.
However, among all these research institutes, sports centers, sanatoriums, swimming pools and pioneer camps, there are buildings with completely exotic functions, for example, “wedding palaces”.
These amazing complexes, erected in the centers of cities, resembled cathedrals - both in their size and in their purpose.
Shoben even came up with a whole game with his picture of the Wedding Palace in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. He showed the photo to different people and asked them to guess what it was - a monastery, a power plant, or maybe a giant laboratory?
"No one could have guessed that this was just a marriage registration office designed on a majestic scale to encourage people to refuse to get married in a church."
However, Chauben also has a serious goal: he wants to understand how these buildings appeared, and to find the authors of the projects - but it turned out to be very difficult, if not impossible, to find out the names of the architects. They were civil servants, after all, and worked in gigantic architectural workshops.
If these people created the same buildings in the West, they would probably become rich and famous, they would live in penthouses. In the USSR, they got only small apartments in standard panel high-rise buildings.
The youngest of the architects who worked on these projects at the end of the Soviet era are now in their 60s; some of them have achieved great success.
So, Oleg Romanov, who in 1985 became one of the authors of the project for a camp for difficult teenagers in the village of Bogatyri (Russia) - it was made in a "zigzag" style, which received the name "deconstructivism" in the West - is now vice president of the Union of Architects of St. Petersburg .
He is actively campaigning against the construction of the gigantic and gaudy "Gazprom Tower" designed by British architecture firm RMJM, which threatens to ruin the skyline of one of the planet's most beautiful cities.
In 1994, he emigrated to the United States and began working in New York with Philip Johnson, the epitome of decadent "bourgeois" architecture.
And Giorgi Chakhava, as it turns out, was not only the lead architect of the magnificent project of the Georgian Ministry of Highways, but also the republican minister of road construction. Therefore, he could give free rein to his imagination, inspired by the ideas of one of the leaders of the Suprematists - El Lissitzky.
The result was almost a whole city - a complex of roads and buildings-blocks intersecting in the sky: the ministry seems to soar above the forest, creating a harmony of nature and avant-garde architecture.
11.Ministry of Road Construction of Georgia
Are these masterpieces preserved only on the pages of Chauben's book? Due to the predation of developers, many of them may die: after all, these buildings stand on expensive land, where you can build a lot of banal hotels, casinos, entertainment centers and villas for the rich.
However, there is good news: the ministry building built by Chakhava was declared a national architectural monument in 2007, the year of the architect's death. Later there were plans to place the Bank of Georgia in it.
However, not all Tbilisi residents like this building: many consider it a visible symbol of the gloomy past. The same attitude exists towards many other buildings photographed by Chaubin - although he himself considers them evidence of the decline of the USSR, and not its remnants.
"I don't have nostalgia for the Soviet Union," he explains, "but these strange and beautiful buildings are a shell of a culture that has fascinated me."
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14. House of Soviets in Kaliningrad
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21.Concert hall in Dnepropetrovsk
22. Theater named after G. Kamala in Kazan
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26. Cinema "Panoramic" in Tashkent
Text by Jonathan Glancy, Guardian magazine, translated by Voice of Russia
