SKYHIVE

The Blossom Building draws our attention to an uneasy challenge between the growth of cities and the fragility of the natural environment: the dialectics between preservation of nature and land exploitation. According to the jury, “It’s a bold and ambitious concept, proposed with clarity and vision; the closest among submissions to attempting and satisfactorily completing a synthesis of climate change agenda and the resulting architectural form.” The proposal targeted an important environmental issue with an innovative and sensitive approach, creating an alternative solution for the deforestation of the Amazon. The project’s graphic representation translates a clear concept and strategy while maintaining the design integrity of the building.

Adapting Obsolescence proposes an ephemeral tower that soars upward from the architectural vestiges of the past. The jury commented, “The dramatic design is clearly presented, with sufficient thought devoted to the structure's relationship with both its residents and to community at large. A proposition at first undertaken with humor and wit, and resolved with a determination for its commercial viability, managing to find a better building at the end of it all.” Through the simple act of embedding a façade more deeply into the body of the building, the designers have produced a solution to several aspects of the office-building-to-residences dilemma – reducing the distance from core to skin, and simultaneously providing inhabitants with outdoor spaces. The idea to not only renovate such structures, but also treat them as a base for future vertical construction is promising, though one suspects that this could still be done while maintaining the historic integrity of the infamous postmodern structure depicted.

State of the Art Plaza is described by one juror as “if not by OMA, then a love letter to them, their diagrammatic clarity, and purity of form. Deserving for this alone and for the unlikely thought of making one nostalgic for a time two decades ago.” The project’s concept of three primary function types supported by a public plaza is clear and successfully examines the notion of vertical singularity. The horizontal tower formation at the top as a public destination offers a variety of uses and alternative purpose to the city. The illustrations are simple yet concise and strong.