london UNITED KINGDOM
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Jeffrey LEE, Rui LIU, & Tina QIU: Manhattan is filled with some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. Central Park, situated in the heart of the city, serves as the only source of natural green environment in New York.
bologna ITALY
suckerPUNH: Describe your project.
Luca PEDRIELLI: Oximoron is a research thesis in the field of computational aesthetics through the application of topology optimization strategies for a skyscraper design in Shenzhen (China); the figure of speech that combines contradictory terms better describes the thesis subject: the erosion, a sort of creative destruction, the construction of space through matter subtraction.
chicago ILLINOIS
Illinois Institute of Technology
critics: Ross WIMER & Gordon GILL
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Daniel CAVEN: Past ideas of towers acting as modern monumental statues in this modern world have become obsolete. Now towers must incorporate adaptive qualities for climate change and environmental conditions to withstand tests of sustainability as well as create a generative life. The Relief Tower is capable of generating active energy outputs as well sustainable mechanical devices that will achieve economic gains for major cities, such as Chicago.
san luis obispo CALIFORNIA
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Studio400
critic: Karen LANGE
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Brandon Scott SAMPSON: The initial idea and research for this project developed out of my experience in Los Angeles last year. This thesis addresses the contemporary urban condition of downtown Los Angeles and introduces a way to take advantage of its voided urban fabric.
atlanta GEORGIA
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Architecture
critic: Volkan ALKANOGLU
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Annie McCARTHY: The design of a new Cooper Union vertical campus challenges notions of extrusion of floor plates in the tower typology by thinking of both formal and programmatic organization as discrete chunks. How can Cooper Union situate itself in a vertical context, and how does that relate to formal chunking in a tower? In fact, it is in a similar way to how Cooper Union organizes itself in current lateral relationships in the Manhattan grid—on the cusp of two colliding grids.
chicago ILLINOIS
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
daniel CAVEN: The Devoid Tower, design by Daniel Caven at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, explores the passive systems that can be incorporated into high-rise design. The design is influenced by a set of design rules, and tested using parametric and environmental analysis.
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
raymond PAN/HMC Architects: The Taiwan Tower design is conceived as an iconic new building for Taiwan, and an integral part of the city’s urban fabric. The tower derives its form and function from an emphasis on connectedness: connection to its urban context, connection with natural processes and sustainable systems, and connection to the history and culture of the people of Taichung. The tower’s base engages the multiple conditions present in the local urban context, including the creation of a bridge to the new Gateway Park, the enhancement of pedestrian and mass transit linkages, and acknowledgement of the adjacent historic quarter.
hong kong CHINA
suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.
Y Design Office: Under rapid housing developments in the past years, Hong Kong has benefited much in terms of economy. However, important values such as value in sense of community and individual identity were lost. This thesis hereby critically reviews current and past housing projects in Hong Kong and stating the notion of verticality as the only solution.
Ben van Berkel / UNStudio’s design for The Scotts Tower unveiled in Singapore
UNStudio’s design for The Scotts Tower in Singapore will be the first development to be unveiled today under the Far East Organisation’s new SOHO brand. Designed to conserve space whilst maximizing live/work/play areas, The Scotts Tower presents a new dimension of functional and flexible vertical space.
