Author | Jaime RamosThis spring, the most important architecture and design magazine worldwide, eVolo, presented the prestigious skyscraper competition awards. The projects presented in the 2019 edition were, once again, an example of how technological innovation can combine with architectural functionalities capable of combating the problems facing cities today.The jury for the event received 478projects. There were three winners and 27 received honourable mentions. The fundamental sense of this architectural innovation stands out among the winners. Two of the successful projects focused on combating pollution through recycling, either from physical waste or from the air itself.
Methanescraper, how to convert rubbish into energy
The first award of the 2019 event went to Marko Dragicevic and his project Methanescraper. This particular skyscraper could, essentially, be described as a giant recycling plant. The actual structure has different modules that serve to categorise waste into glass, plastics, organic matter, or paper, wood or metals.
Airscraper, a vacuuming skyscraper
Klaudia Go?aszewska and Marek Grodzicki are the skyscraper designers that received the second prize: Airscrape. The idea is based on cities in which air quality poses a problem to public health, as is the case in Chinese megalopolises.In this case, we are referring to a circular tower standing 800 metres tall and 60 metres in diameter. The skyscraper uses the stack effect to suck in the contaminated air from the surrounding areas and cleans it thanks to the filtering technology. The modules responsible for attracting the air are located at the base of the tower to collect contaminating agents that flow at street level, such as the PM10 and the PM2.5. This theoretical effectiveness of this filtering system would be 80%.The skyscraper is completed with another two types of modules: solar modules, responsible for producing clean air; and garden modules, located at 400 metres and above on the residential part of the building.The skyscraper for immigrants
